Kidnapped
by StArl3tt3
Summary: Raven tells the story of her kidnapping and how she survived.
1. Chapter 1

Raven sat down in the seat designated for her. A crew member came up and kept brushing her hair and dabbing more make-up on her face, and she had to shoo him away. Taking a deep breath, the interviewer came up and shook her hand.

"Hello Ms. Alexander, I'm Kenneth Smith, and I'll be conducting your interview. So what I want you to do for me is to just tell me the whole story, from the beginning. That's all, but if something becomes too painful, we can stop at any time. All right?"

"Y-y-yes sir." Raven said nervously, but inwardly cursed herself for sounding so pathetic. Mr. Smith just smiled.

"O.K. now, lets go back to the beginning a couple days before your kidnapping. What was going on at that time?"

"Well…."

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FINALLY!! School was out. I'm free at last. Lila Tess looked back laughing and smiling.

"Come on Raven!! Let's go celebrate! Oh! I have a better idea, lets go to the mall and see what kind of attention we can attract." I just smiled and agreed. Lila was the more flamboyant partner of our friendship, and wasn't afraid to share her opinion to anyone.

Walking into the mall, it was full of people bustling around loaded down with shopping bags preparing for the long Texas summer months ahead. Lila and I walked to our favorite milkshake shop. I ordered my usual, double chocolate with oreos on top.

Slurping happily at our usual table, we watched as some guys walked by. Lila put on her "face" as I always called it, W_hat a flirt_, smiling slightly she batted her eyelashes just enough then turned to me as if we were having a deep conversation.

"Which one do you think is the cutest? I'm thinking the tall one…but the shorter one with blond hair isn't bad either. Oh! So many choices." She kept complaining. But I wasn't really paying attention, for one particular set of eyes had caught my attention.

Vivid green eyes held mine, the facial features were hard and rigid. And gave off a very masculine aurora, which I was very intrigued by, the light brown hair on top was short cut, and what I could see of his body looked as if it was made of stone. The kind of body only many people dreamed of having. He looked as if he were a soldier. But the voice of a teenage boy broke my concentration.

"Does your friend there have a problem or something??" I looked up and flushed. Grinning sheepishly I ducked my head down, too embarrassed to actually make eye contact with the person who was talking once again.

"Rave, are you coming? I said I was going to go walking with my new friends, are you in?" I looked at Lila, and finally found my voice.

"Yeah sure, I'll come. I need to find a new shirt, so lets stop at my favorite store while we're walking." As I got up, I looked to see where the mysterious guy was, but he wasn't there, _typical_. But as I walked with Lila and the new guys, I saw those eyes again. Looking, staring, all the way into my soul almost. _Silly girl,_ I thought, _he's not interested. He obviously has a staring problem or you have something on your face._

During this little war between myself, I looked back to where he was, and saw him walking across to where we were walking. And also the whole time we walked, talked, and shopped I noticed, just casually, that he seemed to be there too. Brushing it off, I didn't see the need to mention it to anyone else, but I later learned that that was a bad choice to have made.

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"So that was your first encounter with Mr. Riley?" Mr. Smith asked.

"Yes, it was. But it definitely wasn't the last. I saw him a couple other times before my kidnapping."

"I see, please continue."

________________________________________________________________________

The next week, Mom asked me to go to the grocery store to get a couple of items she had forgotten. Grabbing a cart, I began my hunt so I could go back home as quickly as possible. While shopping, I felt like I was being watched. Looking around carefully on both ends of the aisle, I didn't see anyone. And went back to my search for the cheapest feminine necessity.

Once again, the feeling came back, trying to outsmart my stalker. I looked up quickly and saw, none the less, the guy from the mall. This time standing up looking casually at body wash. Giving him a look up and down I saw just how large he really was. An easy six inches taller than me, and twice as big. I looked back down at the package I had in my hand.

Quickly throwing it in my cart, I all but ran to the check-out line. The old cashier lady looked at me skeptically over her thick rimmed glasses. I just looked back with a look on my face saying, _"Are you going to check it out or will I have to?"_.

Walking to my car, silently cursing the stupid old lady that was checking out my items, because she took so long, I didn't realize that until I had gotten into my car that there in front of me across the way was the same guy staring once again into my eyes.

And I began cursing him too. _What does he have a staring problem?? Ugh! Why does everything have to be such a problem with people. First the lady goes slower than Christmas to scan all my five items. Then some freaky guy is looking into my soul! What did I do to deserve this???_ I mumbled that all to myself on the way home. But sadly, once again, I was blind to see that I was being followed.

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"He followed you home?" Smith interrupted.

"Yes, he did. I didn't see him until I had already pulled into the driveway, and was getting out of the car. He was driving slow enough for me to see his face."

"And was that the night he took you?"

"No, it's not. That was the first time I had seen him drive by my house. He didn't take me until the next week. When I was at a party actually."

"That's right. O.K. well lets skip to the night of the party then. Please tell me about all of it."

________________________________________________________________________

"Rave!!! Get your butt down here! We have to go, I promise your lusciously curly brown hair that is always perfect, looks absolutely fine." Lila screamed, although she was just in the room next to me.

"All right, all right quit your screaming. The neighbors are going to think something is happening to you."

"Well hurry up. Weston expects us in like five minutes. We got to go!"

"Yes ma'am! Lets hit the road."

So we were off, getting to the Weston's house didn't take as long as Lila made it out to be. But whatever. Weston was my best guy friend, the best one a girl could ever have. We had known each other since before we could walk. And tonight was his turn amongst the neighborhood kids to hold a party at his house.

A couple hours later, I had to make an ice run. I'm not one for big parties, so I was willing to leave. Walking to Mrs. Wilma's house down the road, I knocked on the door explaining that I was there to pick up the extra ice she was holding for us. She left me at the door and went inside the house to go get my request.

The feeling of being watched again crept on me. I looked around quickly and saw a truck that I hadn't noticed before. It was him. I tried to stay calm, I wasn't going to start freaking out. Taking the ice, I started to haul the five pound bag back to Weston's house.

Then I heard the sound of a car door shutting. And I quickened my pace. The sound of footsteps behind me. _Crunch, crunch, crunch._ My heart started to pound in my chest as I tried to control my breathing. All of a sudden, BAM!…black.


	2. Chapter 2

"He took you?"

"Yes, he hit me on the back of my head to make me black out. The police found the ice I had dropped. But other than that I had simply disappeared."

"I see. Well what happened next?"

"I woke up to the face of my capture."

"O.K. let's go to that. When you first came face to face with Mr. Riley?"

"Yes."

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_Ugh, my head. _Keeping my eyes shut I laid where I was for a minute as I checked the rest of my body for any sign of damage. Other than the pounding in my head, I was fine. So I started to open my eyes to find darkness. I sat up slowly and heard the sound of a chain moving. And felt something around my neck, moving my hand up to there, I felt a metal piece around my neck. Following it down I realized that it was the chain. What the _hell_ is happening!?!

Then the sound of footsteps coming to my right made my head turn. Walking down a set of steps with a light in his hand stood the stalker guy. The light casting a frightening shadow on his face. And I felt my eyes bugging out of my face. _Oh Lord help me!_

As he kept moving towards me, I scooted back until the chain on my neck wouldn't allow me to move any farther. And he continued to move toward me. A whimper escaped my lips, and I squeezed my eyes shut praying to have it just end quickly. The sound of a chair scraping across the floor caught my attention, forcing me to open my eyes. There sitting across from me was my captor.

"Glad to see you're finally awake," his voice was deep, and it felt as if it reverberated in the whole room. I just stared up at him, my mouth a gaped, "I'm sorry did I startle you?" I continued to stare, not able to find my voice. I saw his eyes narrow at me.

"Do you not speak? You didn't seem to have a problem at the party, rather the opposite. Don't worry, I won't hurt you." His eyes, hypnotic, made my skin crawl.

"W-w-what do you w-w-want w-w-with me?" I stuttered out.

"Ah, do not fret. I will not harm you, I'm just glad to see you're finally awake."

"Where am I?"

"You shouldn't worry you're little head off about that." I looked hesitantly around, trying to see if there were any cracks or anything, but I didn't want to make it obvious.

"Just stop what you're doing. You shouldn't waste you're time, you're not getting out." His voice, again hypnotic, but this time held a threat. I looked up at him, and saw that he was being absolutely serious.

"I came down to ask if you wanted to come upstairs. But obviously you aren't ready. So I'll leave you down here until you seem fit enough to have a normal conversation." I looked up at him, and he seemed determined to make me sit in the dark basement. Nobody knew, but I was terrified of the dark.

"No, no I'll talk. Please! I'll talk. What do you want??" I looked franticly in his eyes, mine welling up with tears with just the thought of being left by myself in the dark basement. And if he brought me upstairs, then I could possibly find another way out.

He looked at me skeptically, my eyes pleading, _Don't leave me in this place._ I heard a sigh, and the sound of keys scraping against each other, and the feeling of the metal piece being removed from my neck. And his hands around my arms, but at this I moved away. I didn't want him touching me.

"Come on, no need to try and run. I'll move you to a different room upstairs."

He made me walk ahead of him, if I wasn't in this situation, I would have taken the time to actually look around. But just a quick sweep told me there wasn't going to be just an easy escape.

"Go to the room to the right." I followed his directions, and walked into a room with a single bed. And that was it. I looked around, and felt his hands come to my back and gently but firmly push me into the room.

"You will be staying in here. I will be back later." I gave him one last look, before he closed the door. I decided to check around my surroundings.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"So he moved you into another room?"

"Yes, it was brighter. There was a window, but the ceilings were an easy 16 feet. There was no way I would have been able to climb. I tried taking apart the bed, but it was welded together."

"Welded?"

"Yes, it seemed as if he was expecting me, and so he set it all up. The only rooms I saw in the whole house were the room I primarily stayed in and the bathroom."

"And when you went to the bathroom, did you try to escape that way too?"

"Of course, but I was only allowed 3 minutes to do my business. So there was really no way I had time to go, and look around. So I split up my time. I'd go to the bathroom and spend the rest of the time looking around. He'd give me a ten second warning before he opened the door. I was given enough time to compose myself."

"So what was a normal day like then."

"I was woken with him coming and giving me breakfast, which consisted of oatmeal, 2 eggs, a glass of orange juice, and a glass of milk. Then a quick bathroom break. I would be brought back to my room, and I would sit there for countless hours. But he did give me a watch and a book, so I could keep up with the time and be entertained. Around 12:30 he would bring me lunch, which was normally a tuna sandwich and a glass of water. And then around 3 or so, another bathroom break. And around 6:30 he would bring me dinner, but there wasn't a set thing he would bring. Anything from meatloaf and potatoes to pizza."

"So you ate plenty of times."

"Definitely, I wasn't starving, and it was all healthy foods. And then after that I would be taken to the bathroom for a shower and another bathroom break. I was given ten minutes for the shower and he would sit there in the bathroom during my shower."

"Sit in the bathroom with you?"

"Yes, but he would just sit there thankfully. And after I dried off in the shower, I would say I was done and he would leave to give me five minutes to brush my teeth, get dressed, and use the bathroom for one last time before I would go back to the room for the rest of the night."

"What did you wear?"

"I had three pairs of sweat pants, three t-shirts, and two pairs of underwear. He would take the outfit I had worn that day, give me a fresh one, and wash the clothes I just gave him. I think the clothes were his, but he gave them to me."

"Did he ever talk to you?"

"Mostly small talk, he would sit in during my meals but I think it was to ensure that I actually ate. Because the first week or so of being brought into the room, I didn't eat. And he warned me that if I didn't start eating the portions he gave me, he would force feed me. Which meant he would have to touch me. So I just did as I was told. I didn't talk to him, I would just sit there during our meals."

"He didn't force himself on you?"

"No, not at all, he would sit on one side of the room, and I would sit on the other."

"How long did all this last?"

"About two months. He would give me updates on the search my family was issuing, and about the speeches my friends and family were giving begging me to be brought back to them. And he kept telling me how they had no leads. Nothing."

"When did it start changing? Your schedule."

"The day he made the comment about the police finding a body, and they thought it was me. So all searching stopped."


	3. Chapter 3

"Come on, get up. Time to get up." Said the voice that was the only one I had heard for the past two and a half months. "Come on, wake up. You're moving rooms today."

At this I sat up, "What? What do you mean?"

He chuckled, "Like I said, you're moving, into a cozier room. You'll have nicer clothes, I have brought some especially for you."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Wait, he brought you clothes, and moved you to a different room?"

"Not just any room, his room. It was the master bedroom. I had my own closet, and practically a bathroom all to myself. I was allowed to listen to music, CD's only. And basically I was allowed more freedoms."

"Do you know what brought along all these changes?"

"They had stopped the search, so I guess he thought it was safe to bring me out more in the open."

"I understand. Please continue…"

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Boredom. Boredom. Boredom.

"Raven! Would you please come down here for lunch." Mr. Riley, who I had the utmost pleasure of sharing my life with for the past five months, said

"I'm coming." I yelled back. And I hurried down the stairs.

"Well don't you just look pretty." I flushed, no matter how many times he complimented me, my blush would always appear.

"What is for lunch today?"

"I'm having some friends over, so it's salmon on rice pilaf."

"Friends?" This got my blood pumping. _Freedom?_

A short time later, the door bell rang.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Chris Taylor and Hazel Stephanie? They were friends of Mr. Riley."

"Yes, this was my first encounter with them."

"I see."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Hey Chris, Hazel, great to see you again. I want you to meet Raven. Raven, these are my good friends Chris Taylor and Hazel Stephanie."

"Hello." Chris said in his gruff of a voice.

"Oh, Raven! It's such a pleasure to finally meet you. Oh, I've heard so much about you. I was telling Chris how I just couldn't wait until I had met this mysterious girl." Her country accent was distinct. I looked at her with a crazy look on my face thinking about just how crazy she really seemed to be.

"Hi. It's a pleasure to meet you." I smiled like an obedient girl, for I felt Riley stiffen at Hazel's speech.

"Why don't you guys come on in, lunch is ready." Riley said.

After lunch, I took the dirty dishes and went to the kitchen to start cleaning up.

"Hey, do you need any help?" Hazel asked, I guess, trying to make conversation.

"Uh sure. If you could just start drying the dishes for me that would be great." So that's how we spent the first fifteen minutes.

"So how are you liking it here?" I looked up at her.

"I was kidnapped, taken from everything I've known, and kept in a small room for most of the day for two months straight. I'd like to go home."

"But it's not like that now right? I mean, you don't seem like you're being held in a small room."

"No, not now. But I'm still not allowed out of his sight. I just want to go home."

"Well, I don't think that is going to happen, sorry. Look I've known Garrison for a long time, and I can see that he is truly happy. You make him happy darling. And I'm pretty sure he is not going to let you go anytime soon."

"I just shouldn't be here."

"Do you want my advice?"

"About what?"

"On how to make your situation better. Look you take my advice and use it however you want. With a man like Garrison, you're going to have to "offer" yourself to him…"

"I what?!?"

"Look honey, I'm not talking about full on sex. I'm saying, you're going to have to open up to him so that he'll think of you as a person. He's the kind of guy that you can wrap around your little finger and he'll do anything for you to be happy."

"And you know this for a fact?"

"Yeah sugar, like I said I've known him for a very long time. Since before he was in the military."

"Military??"

"Why do you think he's so big. It's not from sitting on the couch, that's for sure."

"Hazel! Hey sweetheart, are you ready to go?" We heard Chris call from the living room.

"Yeah, I'm coming."

"Thanks Hazel, I guess." I said sheepishly.

"No problem. I'll try to stop by as much as possible to help you out. Just think about it."

"O.K."

After they left, I walked into the living room and sat down. I had a lot to think about after my conversation with Hazel.


	4. Chapter 4

"How long did it take you to decide whether or not you were going to "open up" to him or not?"

"I thought about it for a day or two. And since I concluded that I couldn't physically escape Riley, I would have to find another way out. So I thought that befriending him would hopefully be the way of getting out. I mean, there were alarms set on all the doors that led to outside. I couldn't possibly disarm it. I didn't know how."

"So what did you do?"

"I just started talking to him. Slowly, and we got to know each other better. So he began to trust me more."

"Did he ever ask you want you and Ms. Stephanie talked about that day?"

"No."

"All right, well please continue."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A month had passed since I had come up with the idea of "befriending" my captor. What was I thinking at the time. It's been officially six months now that I've been living with Mr. Riley, and I think of my family everyday. I was through asking the question "Why I was chosen?" Because I was just going to have to make the best of my situation.

"Hey Mr. Riley, what are you doing up so early?" I asked one morning when the sun happened to be extra bright. And that was what had awoken me.

"I'm always up at this time. You're just always asleep so you wouldn't know." He said this with a small laugh and grin on his face. He was standing in front of the stove making the eggs we always had.

"Right, sorry for actually being a human and sleeping until a decent hour in the morning." We both chuckled and continued with our morning duties. _Was it ok for me to actually appreciate his company?_ I tried to convince myself that it was because of my situation, living with one guy for the past six months, you become dependent. After breakfast, I went to the living room and sat down. Sighing deeply I looked around for something to do.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I guess. I'm just bored."

"What would help take your mind off of that?"

"I don't know. When I was like this at home, I would normally play with my dog or something like that. She was just a little puppy, so she needed a lot of training. That always kept me entertained."

"A puppy?"

"Yeah, her name was Kibbles. I didn't want to name her Kibbles, I wanted to name her Eggo. But oh well."

"What kind of dog have you always wanted?"

"Oh, maybe like a….Great Pyrenees?"

"A Great Pyrenees?!? That's quite a dog. I can understand why your parents wouldn't allow you to have a dog. Those dogs are huge."

"I know! But they are so cute! My friend, Lila, had one when we were younger. That was the best dog in the whole world." I said, animately.

"So you want a Great Pyrenees? And name it Eggo."

"Yeah, that's the plan."

"I see."

"What kind of dog have you always wanted?

"I had a German Shepard when I was growing up…"

"You're a German Shepard person, hmmm, interesting."

And the conversation started to branch off to other topics to pass the time. The next day, the phone began to ring. Riley walked out of the room leaving me sitting there by myself for a moment. Suddenly I heard some commotion coming from the other room with him yelling. I walked to the door, and put my ear against it to see what he was saying.

"...No, I don't think you understand. I ordered my package yesterday, and it is to be shipped here today. I paid extra, and I expect what I paid for. Either I have my package today, or I'm going to pull my shares out of funding….yes sir that's exactly what I'm going to do.

...Well I'm glad you understand, so I will be getting my package today? Well thank you very much."

I backed away from the door slowly, then tiptoed/ran back to the living room. I jumped over the couch then huddled down in the cushions, hoping I looked the same as before he left. He walked in, and looked calm and collected, almost too composed.

"Is everything O.K.?" I tried to make my big chocolate brown eyes hold something close to innocence. I saw him relax and take a deep breath, sitting down he sighed.

"Yes, I think so now. I'm sorry for the interruption."

A few hours later, the doorbell rang, I saw him stiffen slightly, "Raven, could you please go in the bedroom." I silently got up, and closed the door softly. But I could still hear the muffled conversation through the door.

"If you could sign here please sir, thank you. And here is your package."

"Alright. Thank you." I heard footsteps, a door shut, and more footsteps coming towards the door. I backed away and sat on the bed. Riley came to the door and knocked, "Raven is it all right if I open up?"

"Yes." He walked in, "You may come out now. Seems today is just full of interruptions."

"It seems so."

The next morning, I was awoken by the feel of something wet touching my face. I grumbled and tried to swat it away. Then I felt a weight on my chest, and I finally opened my eyes. And staring right into my face was a white furry one. I smiled and sat up, startling the poor thing. I rubbed its head and laughed when it licked me again. "Eggo," I whispered.

I ran down the stairs with my new puppy at my heels. "Riley! Mr. Riley!" And I stopped in the living room. I smelled eggs. I jumped into the kitchen with a big smile on my face. I'm sure I was quite the sight, for he just stared, mouth a gaped.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you," And before even I knew what I was doing. I had thrown my arms around him, what I could of him, in an awkward hug. I backed off quickly, but still with a smile on my face. I could feel Eggo around my ankles, and picked up my new puppy.

"Uh, your welcome. If I knew you would have been this happy I would have gotten him a long time ago. It's worth seeing a smile on your face." I blushed at the compliment, and became distinctly aware just how close we had been standing, and even more embarrassing I was still in my nightgown, not even my hair was fixed.

"I, uh, think I should go get dressed." I backed away slowly, very ready to run for it.

"Oh, Raven," I turned around quickly, my face still flushed with my last blush, "Please, call me Garrison. Mr. Riley still sounds very odd and formal to me." I smiled.

"O.K…Garrison." As I tested it out he smiled.

"Well, I still need to go get dressed." I picked up Eggo and went to the bedroom. While in there I thought about my situation once again.

1. My plan for trying to "befriend" my captor was working, maybe a little better than expected.

2. I'm starting to gain his trust which means, although I don't look like I'm going to be leaving anytime soon. The time keeps getting closer every day.

3. He has given me everything I've needed, so maybe I should be thankful that it was he who had kidnapped me, not some pervert.


	5. Chapter 5

"Let me get a few things straightened out here, first you try to befriend him, which so far is working. Then afterwards, he gets you a dog? How does that work out?"

"I'm not very sure. I think he started to feel bad that I had no one else, except him. So he bought me a dog to make up for it."

"And the clothes you were talking about. Can you elaborate on those?"

"Well I thought he had literally bought me some. But come to find out they were old dresses from a storage building, and he had brought them home and washed them. Because before, I only had those sweat pants and t-shirts."

"It seems to me that you guys were getting along rather well."

"Yes, now that I think back, we were getting along very well. I wasn't hiding from him, and he wasn't ignoring me. So it started to work out."

"O.K. so back to the story."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A knock came through my train of thought. "Raven? Are you in there?" Garrison's muffled voice came through.

"Yeah." I took one last look in the mirror before throwing the door open. "Sorry I took so long, I couldn't decide between two dresses." He gave me a quick look up and down and grinned,

"I definitely like that one," and then quickly added, "it goes good with your eyes."

"Thank you." A yep brought me to look at my new companion, "Do you think we can get Eggo here a collar?"

Breakfast went as usual, but Garrison expressed how he did not want me feeding the dog scraps. Scraps made dogs fat and unhealthy, his words, not mine. And that if he was going to buy dog food, then Eggo was going to eat it.

After breakfast, I went into the living room. I sat on the couch, but quickly decided against it. By the time Garrison had walked in, Eggo and I were rolling on the ground. I had a sock I had found under the couch and he was on his back trying to bite the sock as I rubbed his belly.

Hearing a chuckle brought me out of my and playing, and for the second time that day, he had made me blush. I grinned back, while fixing my dress to look a little more ladylike.

"Pray tell, Mr. Riley, why you find yourself so much better than Mr. Eggo and myself that you can not play with us?" I said in my terrible fake British.

"I…I…uh."

"No need for excuses, but I do believe you should come down here to play with your new roommate."

A few hours later, the doorbell rang.

"I'll get that." Garrison said. Opening up the door, Hazel bustled in carrying a lot of shopping bags.

"Hey ya'll! I've been shopping, then I saw some stores having major sales and decided that Raven may need some updated clothes." I smiled, new clothes sounded fabulous. She dumped the clothes into piles, shirts, pants, socks, underwear, very big piles. "I wasn't very sure about your size. But it'll be O.K. I can always return them if they don't fit."

I was sifting through the pile shirts, there were so many. "Don't fret darling, you can keep as many as you want. Most of that stuff wouldn't fit me anyways." I picked up a couple shirts comparing them. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Garrison sitting on the couch with a very sleepy Eggo in his lap.

"I don't know which one I like best," I turned to Garrison, "which one?"

"I don't care, I like the clothes you have on now," he said snottily.

"Those clothes are out of style, old, and look at that dress, it looks like it's about to fall apart if she moves wrong. I saved you a lot of money Garrison Riley, so be happy and answer the girl's question." I could only smirk, she was right, the clothes were very worn.

"Fine. I like the one on the right. But don't you think you need to try the clothes on?"

"Yeah, but I'm going to go through and find the ones I like, then try them on."

A half an hour later! I had finally found at least ten outfits. I was so happy. Trying on the clothes was fun, it was like a fashion show. Only the undergarments caused a problem.

I said that I would try them on later, and the ones that didn't fit I would put back in a bag and Garrison could give them back to Hazel the next time he saw her. But Hazel wanted to see me in them to make sure I wasn't just saying no because they were too lacey for my liking. But the problem was that she wanted me to come out and model them like the rest of the clothes. I told her no, and Garrison didn't say a thing.

"Raven, he won't say a word. Why are you being so shy? You have a great body, no need to hide it."

"No Hazel, I can't do it. It's not that I'm trying to hide my body, I'm just not comfortable with the idea. If you want to see, come into the bedroom. But I'm not coming out and modeling them." She finally saw the light, and let me try them on in private.

I came out very victorious thanks to Hazel, although Garrison was still somewhat stiff towards the idea that I was not going to be wearing the dresses he brought for me.

Hazel left about fifteen minutes after we had finished with the clothes. I helped her pack everything back in the bags, and then she had to coo over Eggo, which she thought was a perfect name. She also told me that she was going to get the perfect collar for him, and bring it by as soon as she could. After she left, I took my outfits to the laundry room to just freshen them up. While they were washing I asked Garrison to help me go through my draws and clean out my closet for my new clothes, even though it wasn't much.

Two trash bags later, I had a clean closet, and clean clothes to put in the closet. And so I also needed help with putting and sorting all those clothes into neat piles and appropriate drawers. The last pile of clothes to go through was my underwear, which I insisted I could do by myself. Eggo sat on the bed the whole time, and Garrison went to start dinner, for we were so busy doing laundry, he had forgotten to start dinner.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"O.K. I'm going to interrupt you for a moment."

"Go ahead."

"You haven't talked about the sleeping arrangements. All you said is that he moved you into the master bedroom, which was his bedroom. But that was it. And it's making me wonder if you slept with him or not."

"Oh, well no, I didn't sleep with him. I slept on the bed, and there was a pull out couch in the room which was where he slept. Once I even offered to sleep on the couch, I didn't find it fair that I got his bed and he shifted to a couch. But he insisted that he was absolutely comfortable with the couch. That he had actually gotten a new mattress for it so he was perfectly fine."

"O.K. please proceeds with the story."


	6. Chapter 6

Another month, and one step closer to my goal. The only problem with which I had noticed start happening about two weeks ago. Garrison was going back into his old habits. I wasn't allowed out of his sight, if I went to go set the table for dinner, he'd start complaining that it took me too long to set the table. Then he started to also go back to the 3 minute bathroom breaks, after three minutes went by, he started banging on the bathroom door.

What was I suppose to do? What could I do? What did I do? I had never had to deal with anything like this. Everything was going great. And he just started going back to that way things were at the beginning. Thank goodness Hazel and Chris were coming over for a nice dinner tonight. _I hope I can talk to Hazel again, because I'm at a complete loss._

Around 4:00 I went into the bathroom to start working on my hair. I didn't have anything really to do to it, but I could possibly do a nice ponytail. I was in there for no more than fifteen minutes when Garrison storms in.

"Raven! Why haven't you been answering me when I was calling you? I've been all over the whole house looking for you. Why didn't you come when I called you?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you calling me. I was drying my hair with a blow drier. I wouldn't have been able to hear you."

"Well you should have told me you were going to go fix your hair."

"I'm sorry, I didn't think I HAD to tell you that I was going to go fix my hair. Like I said, I'm sorry." He mumbled something that I couldn't rightly hear.

"I need to go finish dinner."

"O.K. I'll finish up here, give me like five more minutes."

Finally Hazel and Chris show up, the tension in the kitchen was almost too much for me to handle. I just sat there watching him finish up dinner. When the door bell rang I sighed deeply, Garrison went to go open the door.

Chris walked in shaking Garrison's hand and gave me a quick hug. And I could have sworn I saw Garrison giving him a deadly look_. What was going on?_ Hazel came up next and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"Hey sugar, how are you?"

"I'm fine, thank you."

Dinner went by smoothly, although when Garrison and I sat on one side of the table, with our guest on the other. Hazel kept giving me a look asking me what was going on between the two of us. I just kept shaking my head slightly no, saying I would tell her all later.

After dinner was cleared, Hazel said that she had some things she wanted to show me, makeup and some assortments of girly items. She all but pushed me into the bathroom, and shut the door.

"What the hell is going on between you two? You guys were doing so well, what happened," she whispered furiously.

"Don't blame me man, he started it." I whispered back.

"What happened?"

"I don't know. He just started acting like he did when I was first kidnapped. Always making sure I was kept in his presence. I didn't do it, trust me. I don't know what happened, I'm just as confused as you are by his behavior."

"You say he wants to keep you always near him? And is acting the way he did when you first arrived. And did you see when Chris tried to give you a hug? I thought Garrison was going to kill him with his bare hands."

"What are you saying?"

"Oh sugar, you are in way over your head. He's come to like you."

"Well I hope so…"

"No, more than you think. I've seen him like this before with one other girl. She didn't come around exactly like you did. But it didn't end well all the same."

"Wait, so he's like in love with me, but not that deep?"

"Not yet."

"And he had a previous relationship that didn't end too well before this?"

"Yes, but he tried to give her distance, but still be a good boyfriend. And she cheated on him with a friend of his. It doesn't matter. Now he will keep what he wants in his sights at all times because he doesn't want history to repeat itself."

"And I'm what he wants."

"Yes. The only way for him to loosen up is to step it up."

"The befriending."

"You're past befriending. You need to become best friends. And if you have to, with benefits. But it's completely up to you. Either you do that, or you live like this."

"Thanks Hazel. I owe you one."

"Don't worry honey." She left a bag of makeup and hair assortments on the counter and winked.

I needed to rethink the situation I had put myself into. _He loved me? Or well not love, but like me more than the friend I just wanted to be. What did I get myself into? Obviously, you can count on Raven to get herself in to trouble._

So the next thing to think about was, did I pursue my goal. Or do I give up and live like this like Hazel had said? No, I can't give up. I thought I was so close_. But what if he goes too far? _I should try and explain to him that I'm not ready. _It's the only thing I can do, I hope I know him well enough to know he wouldn't try anything. _It took me a day to finally come to the agreement with myself that nothing could stand in the way of me and my freedom plan.

The next day after a nice warm shower, I realized something. I had forgotten to grab some more clothes…crap. I wrapped a robe tightly around me, and ran towards the bedroom. I shut the door behind me in relief.

I turned around to see Garrison laying on his bed, asleep, I cringed. I hope he is a heavy sleeper. I tip-toed to my closet, opened the door, and slipped in. Then I just remembered the light bulb burned out earlier that morning. _Why me?_

I fumbled around, five minutes later, I stumbled out with my shirt on backwards and a stubbed toe. I looked up to see his worried face, and my eyes widened.

"I'm so sorry to have woken you! Oh, I feel awful now. I just…I forgot my clothes after my shower. Then the light in my closet is out. But I didn't want to wake you up, but I did anyways. Oh I feel terrible." I puffed out my lower lip, because I did feel bad for it.

"No, it's O.K. I shouldn't have fallen asleep. It's getting late and I won't be able to sleep tonight."

"I still feel bad." I said walking beside him, but close enough to let my shoulder touch his.

"Well don't."

"O.K." I laughed lightly. "I'm hungry." I grumbled, then my stomach agreed.

"Well what do you want?"

"It's been forever since I had Chinese…"

"Chinese?"

"Oh yes, I love Chinese!"

"O.K. I'll see what I can do for your cravings." (He ended up having to order some.)

"I'll be back in 15 minutes O.K.?"

"I'll be here." I smiled as he pulled on his coat and left.


	7. Chapter 7

A crack of thunder startled me, and I saw a white streak run past me and under the couch, "Oh Eggo! No need to be frightened. Poor baby!" Then it hit me, duh. _The way to get closer is by acting scared of the thunder, but then he'd think I'm always scared of storms…bad dream? Yeah! That's it._

When Garrison came back he was soaking wet, I was still holding a terrified Eggo, and the smell of the Chinese food made my mouth water. Having my fill of all the Chinese food my stomach could hold, the power just happened to go out. Garrison and I scrounged up candles, blankets, pillows, and board games that were in a coat closet.

Five hours later, I was so tired, but the thought of my plans tonight kept my head buzzing.

"One more game, I'm so tired." I said, I couldn't move my leg because Eggo was on it, _lucky dog_. After the game, I convinced Garrison that we could pick up everything tomorrow morning. Getting ready for bed I wore my most non-revealing nightgown. I climbed in, and laid awake for a few more minutes, then heard the soft breathing of Garrison. I drifted off into a light sleep waking up about an hour later. Then I thought about how I was going to execute my plan.

_Do I just jump up and scream and shake? Start moaning…no. I could start moving around then start saying stuff…yeah._ So I started kind of tossing and turning trying to make as much noise as I possibly could.

"No. Don't." I said softly. "Please, he's just a puppy!" I got a little louder. "Don't hurt them. Take me! Take me!" I got very loud. Nice choice of words Raven… "No, don't touch them. They didn't do anything." By then I was thrashing around. My thick nightgown and jumping around was making me kind of sweaty, _good effects_. I suddenly felt two arms come around me. But I didn't stop there. I continued to thrash just screaming now.

"Raven. Raven wake up, it's just a bad dream. Nothing's happening, it was all a dream." I stopped my movements and opened my eyes. There was the same vivid green stare that had captivated me the first time I saw it.

"They were coming after us. They wanted to hurt Eggo! You were tied up. It was terrible!" I whined.

"It was just a bad dream. See? No one but us is here." I was very aware of that. "Now are you O.K.?"

"Yeah, I guess." I was shaking slightly, but not from any cold weather or bad dreams. His body was so close to mine! I wasn't sure if I uncomfortable but I definitely didn't like it. As he began to get up, I cleared my throat a bit, "Do, do you think you can sleep with me. It was so scary. And when," I blushed at this fact, "I had a bad dream I would sometimes crawl into bed with either my mom or my little sister. Silly I know. But I just don't like being alone sometimes."

I made my eyes big, hoping that the word please was being written all over my face. He looked as if he was having a conflict within himself. I stuck out my lower lip slightly, adding some effect. It always worked on Weston when I wanted him to share his cookie at lunch. He sighed and walked on the other side of the bed and got in.

I smiled, _score!_ _Would sleeping with my captor be so bad? I'd known the guy now for about seven months….it wasn't like I was going to do anything with him right?_ I had finally resolved with myself when I felt him finish settling down, I rolled over and smiled. I slightly touched his arm, "Thank you." I whispered, I closed my eyes and eventually fell into a deep sleep.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"You slept with him?"

"No, not sexually. We just happened to sleep in the same bed."

"Did you think that you were every going to have sex with him?"

"At the time, no. It didn't cross my mind."

"Did he sleep with you after that night?"

"Yes, after that night we slept in the same bed. I, uh, I insisted that I wanted him to sleep with me. Because it made me feel better."

"When in fact you were just following your plans."

"Exactly. I thought I was making good progress."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Month eight; everything is going as planned. Hazel and Chris were coming over for Christmas Eve. When I awoke, there was a box laying at the foot of the bed. A note lay on top with my name on it. _Merry Christmas._ Was all it said, I pulled off the top, to see a beautiful dress laying inside with a foreign name on the tag. Mom had taught me a little something about fashion, and what I could recall it had a wide dolman shaped top, and straight bottom with a pencil slit just above the knees. It was all black with a belt just under the bust. At the bottom of the box was a pair of three and a half inch black heels. As I was getting ready after a day of cooking, I took extra care to make my make up and hair look just as perfect as my dress.

When they arrived, I went and turned on Christmas music, and Chris came over and we started dancing. Garrison walked in carrying some drinks. Everyone grabbed one, except me.

"Are you going to drink it or not?" Hazel said.

"It's alcoholic." I had tasted alcohol before, but Mom had never actually let me have a glass."

"Honey, we're not going to tell anyone. I assure you, it's all right," she added.

I grabbed the glass, and saw Garrison smirking out of the corner of my eye. I winked at him, and made my way towards the kitchen…to check on the food. I was facing the stove, when I felt two hands come to my shoulders and turned me around. I smiled and looked into his face.

"You look beautiful tonight." He said, those eyes sparkling.

"Thank you. This is a really pretty dress."

"It is."

"I was very surprised at seeing it. It's perfect."

"I wanted to give you something nice."

"Well you did, I can assure you. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"We should probably get back, I don't want to keep our guests waiting."

Dinner, gift exchange, and some carols, with the exception of Garrison were to follow. Before they left, Hazel had to give Eggo his new collar. The poor dog was growing so fast. He already weighed at least a hundred pounds and he was only two months old.

After they said goodbye, Garrison told Eggo to go to bed (it took me a week to train him to do that). He grabbed two glasses and a bottle of champagne and came and sat on the living room floor.

"I think this calls for a celebration."

"And what are we celebrating?"

"Our first Christmas together." My heart somewhat soared, and then quickly fell at the thought of my family. I smiled softly.

"Yes, I suppose this is a special moment."

"To us." He raised his glass, and I clinked mine to his. I smiled softly, one step closer. He moved slightly, eyes still on my face, and pulled something from behind his back, a jewelry box.

My eyes widened, and my heart skipped a beat and began a hectic pace within my chest. I looked at the box, and then into his face.

"This is for you. I bought it quite some time ago. At the mall, actually, the first time I saw you. I don't know if you remember, but when I saw your face, I thought, 'Wow, she's so beautiful'. And I went into a jewelry store across from where you were shopping, and I bought this." I continued to stare.


	8. Chapter 8

I finally lifted my eyes to his face again. And for a split second, just a brief moment, I saw him as a man. The kind of main I could easily fall in love with. His light brown hair, combed perfectly in place, his sparkling green eyes, and then his sharp muscular features. The kind that said he'd seen the world, and could hold all its troubles. There was just one problem, this wasn't a man I could easily love. I couldn't love him because of what he had put me through. Taking me away from everything I knew and loved. But why? I don't think I'll ever find out, unless I can worm myself farther into his heart.

"I'm sure it's beautiful."

"But not the most beautiful thing I've ever seen though," I blushed profusely, "please, open it." He handed it to me. With shaky hands, I held my hand open, and took a deep breath.

I slowly opened it, and saw the most beautiful necklace and diamond earrings. It was simple, but too perfect to be called plain. I let out a shaky breath. Then I peeled my eyes away from the box,

"Can you put it on me?"

He smiled, "I'd be delighted."

I brushed my hair back off the nape of my neck. His large hands brushed against my neck sending chills down my spine. After he pinned it back, I turned around showing off my new pendant. I grabbed the earrings, and stuck them in also.

I smiled brightly, "They are absolutely beautiful." Then my face fell, I didn't have a gift for him.

"But, I don't have a gift for you." My eyes got big, I did feel bad.

"You are enough. I'm perfectly continent." Then I got an idea, just like during the thunderstorm, I smiled shyly.

"Well I do have something in mind, but it's silly." I had sparked his curiosity.

"Please, by all means, I would love to see it. I swear, I won't laugh."

"No, I don't think you'll laugh. But I think you may be displease with me." He cocked his head to the side.

"I'd still like to know."

I leaned forward, licking my lips a little. I was crouching now right in front of him. I looked him dead in the eye, and brushed my lips against his. My heart felt as if it had stopped. I was about to pull back when I felt his hand on the back of my head, making me kiss him deeper.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"You kissed him?"

"Yes."

"The man that took you away from your family. The man that potentially ruined your life, you showed him affection."

"It meant my freedom."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When I awoke I felt a body next me. And arms encircled around my waist. I tried to slip out of Garrison's grip, but as I tried to move farther away, his grip kept tightening. Finally after 30 minutes of trying to get out, I was free. I went into the kitchen, and started the stove up. Twenty minutes later, I had four egg burritos, two glasses of milk, and two glasses of orange juice.

I walked carefully up the stairs and into the bedroom. I set the tray on the nightstand and sat down next to Garrison's sleeping form. I gently tried to shake him awake, but all I got in response was a grumble. I shook him again, but gently said his name…nothing. While shaking his shoulder I softly spoke, "Garrison, wake up. I made breakfast. Garrison, hey, Merry Christmas. Garrison." By the third time I had said his name, I all but shouted.

"Five more minutes." I heard through the pillow he had placed over his head.

"No, you have to wake up now." I thought of a way to get him up. I jumped on the other side of him, and pulled the pillow off his face. I began running my finger over his face. Starting at his forehead running across the bridge of his nose.

"Garrison." I kept saying softly, in my singing voice. I saw his forehead wrinkle a bit. "Hey, wake up sleepyhead. It's Christmas and I've got breakfast." I saw his eye open a bit. I went and did something I wouldn't normally have done. I started at his forehead once more, and placed light kisses, basically brushing my lips against his skin.

I made my way past his temple, over his cheeks, tip of his nose, and then the corner of his mouth. His head turned swiftly to capture my lips in his. I smiled slightly and pulled back.

"Glad to see you're finally awake."

"That's the best way I've ever been woken up before, I think in my whole life." I grinned.

"Well I made breakfast, that's why I was trying to wake you up."

"What's on the menu?"

"Breakfast burritos, milk, and some O.J."

"Wow, sounds like quite a feast."

"Yes, my kind sir, it is. But you must do something before you can devour your meal."

"And, pray tell, my lady, what I must do." I began to laugh.

"You have to actually sit up."

He sat up and rubbed his hands together. I got him all settled, and watched for a second as he ate. The whole time, I had been with Garrison, he had always been composed. But here in front of me, I saw him with his hair tussled, face unwashed and shaven for the day. _Did I just cross another step?_ He looked at me after finishing his two.

"Are you going to eat that?" I looked down at my untouched burrito.

"No, I normally only have one. Please, by all means, don't let any food go to waste." He devoured mine topping it off with the milk and orange juice.

After breakfast was cleared, I gave Eggo his food, and Garrison and I sat in the living room. Around noon, I got up to make some of the left over food from last night for lunch. I had my back turned from the doorway to the kitchen. Suddenly I felt a pair of arms around my waist under my arms. A box appeared in front of my face. I smiled, and turned to face him.

"What's this?" He put on a pouting face.

"Please open it, for me." I smiled and took hold of the box, and gave him a skeptical look. He winked once and gave a slight nod. I lifted the lid and saw a diamond ring. It seemed to match my necklace and earrings. I sucked in some air. He turned me so we were both facing the ring.

"You're necklace and earrings wanted a friend." His breath felt hot against my skin, and I was speechless. He reached around me and took the ring out of the box. He then took hold of my right hand and placed it on my third finger. A perfect fit. He kissed every finger then the ring…very romantic.

I smiled, and gave him a kiss on the cheek still eyeing the ring. It was gorgeous, "Thank you, it's so pretty. But, it's just too much. First the dress, then the necklace and earrings, and now a ring. I can't accept this all." He gave me a kiss on the cheek and smiled.

"You are more than worth it. And I don't think I could stand a second if you didn't accept my gifts. I wanted to give them to you. That's all that should matter." He kissed me again and backed out of the kitchen. I finished making the leftovers, never taking my eye off the ring.

That night was leftovers again for dinner, _why he bought food enough to feed ten people I never figured out._ Afterwards, I felt confident enough to give him another "present". It wasn't my first make out. I'd had boyfriends before. But in one sense, it mattered more, but in another I was a human, and he was, by far, the best kisser I'd ever been kissed by.


	9. Chapter 9

I went to bed early that night, and he told me that he would be up later on. When I awoke at two in the morning, he still wasn't in bed. I crawled out, and went downstairs to see if he had fallen asleep on the couch. But when I walked into the living room, I saw a door opened that I knew was often locked.

I softly walked towards the door, and heard a voice along with Garrison's.

"So you'll be going out of town to see Mr. Joseph about the stocks in two weeks time?"

"Yes. Not only that, but there are some new business men who are getting cocky and greedy that I need to deal with. And I was wondering if you and Hazel could come over a couple times a day, and just check up on her. I don't think she'll have any problems, I just don't want her to get hurt, or be lonely."

"Man, I wish I could. But I've been promising Hazel for two years now that we would go on vacation. And that just happened to be the week we were going."

"Oh, well hell, what am I going to do?"

"What about Neil Marshall? I know it's a shot, but the guy is the best there is when it comes to being entrusted with protecting someone."

"Yeah, but it's been a while since I've talked to the him."

"I'll talk to him, and see what I can do O.K. man. You'll be alright. But can I ask you a question?"

"Sure. But I really need to get to bed. I don't want Raven to get up wondering where I am," _How ironic_, "and I'm sure Hazel's not too happy you're up so late either. But go ahead."

"Well do you actually like her." I held my breath, that's also a question I'd been wondering also.

"What do you mean? 'Do I like her?' Of course, she's the only important thing in my life now."

"You took the question wrong. Hazel and I have obviously talked about it, you're like family to the both of us. But well, is she worth it? Is she worth the chance of you getting caught and charged with kidnapping," I hadn't realized I had been holding my breath. I wanted to know his answer, but then again what if he didn't care. I continued to stare at the back of his head.

"Yes, she is. She's worth it all. I don't know what, what it is. But she is the most important thing in my life ever. Not the military, not keeping her from the public eye. To me her happy is what keeps me going through the day." I felt tears falling down my face.

He took a deep breath, "Think me weak, but she's everything to me. So to answer your question, yes, she's worth it."

"O.K. I'll make some calls. Get to bed, I'll talk to you later."

"All right, bye." I quickly wiped my face, and backed away from the door and stood by the stairs.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Well that had to be quite shocking for you to actually hear him own up to his feelings for you."

"In one way, it was, but in another sense I felt as if I had known it all along."

"Do you think he ever figured out you had overheard the conversation?"

"Well if he did, he never said anything to me. So I cannot honestly answer that."

"Please continue."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I saw him lock up everything and start heading towards where I was standing. I stepped forward. He looked up and I tried to smile.

"Didn't think you were coming to bed tonight, well early this morning." He came up to me, our bodies almost touching.

"I'm sorry. I had some things I needed to do and finish up." I sighed, this emotional roller coaster was taking a toll on my mind. I closed the gap between us, and wrapped my arms around his neck.

It was slightly hard for me to do this since he was much taller than I was. He bent down and put his arms around my waist and lifted me up slightly from the floor. He dug his face between the underside of my chin and above my shoulder. I relaxed and we just stood there for a moment.

He pulled away, and set me back on my feet, I looked up at him.

"Let's go to bed. I'm tired."

"I'm right behind you." I laid down, then felt the bed sink, and his arms came around my waist. I turned over so we were facing each other, then I buried my face under his chin.

The next morning, he was still laying next to me. I started to move a bit.

"Glad to see you're up." I smiled and pulled back to see his face.

"What do you mean by that? I wasn't keeping you here."

"No, you weren't but I'll tell you a secret," he moved his face behind my head, just below my ear, "I like listening to you snore." He started to give me light kisses and moved his way down my neck until he reached my collar bone, and made his way back up following the same imaginary path.

I gasped and my face pink. "I do not snore!" he chuckled softly and looked at my face.

"Oh, yes you do. But it's cute." I rolled my eyes.

"I don't snore." He laughed and continued what he was doing previously.


	10. Chapter 10

"I think it's time for us to get up and ready for the day. We can't lay in bed all day, so get up old man." I rolled out of bed, but I heard a grumble from behind me.

"What was that Mr. Riley?"

"I don't want to get up. I want you and me to lay here all day." I walked over to the bed, and pulled the blankets off of him. He sat up quickly and threw me back on the bed, and started to tickle me. Not many people knew those special places that I was ticklish, because I wasn't all that ticklish.

"You know, for an old man, I must be quite fast. A lot faster than you're little reaction time is."

"Stop! No stop!" I screamed while laughing so hard. It was the hardest I had laughed in such a long time, it felt so good. He finally released me, and I sat up pushing him off of me. I smirked and turned to him, while sitting on my knees. He eyed me suspiciously.

"What?"

"Are you ticklish, because revenge is very sweet." I laughed and attacked him. I didn't get very far, for he flipped me over and we went through another round of him tickling me. I wormed away from him, running into my closet then locking the door. I laughed, and quickly changed clothes.

I cracked the door open, the coast was clear. I ran out of the room. I made it to the stairs and began my descent down, two at a time. Just before I got to the last one, I was hoisted by my waist onto his shoulder. I screamed, and began beating on his back. I wasn't sure I had any effect while he walked towards the living room.

I was thrown onto the couch and saw Garrison walk towards the kitchen. As I was about to get up, he turned around pointed at me.

"Sit." I pouted, but obeyed. We had breakfast in the living room. Eggo came and tried to sit in my lap.

"No Eggo! Oh, you're not a lap dog. You're too big for this." He continued to creep up, and licked my face.

The rest of the day continued in this fashion, of teasing and joking around and what not. As did the next day and the one after that.

On New Years Eve, Hazel and Chris came over again. This time there was obviously more alcohol involved than at Christmas. I once again, was still somewhat hesitant on actually drinking. But Hazel told me to go slow, that I wasn't expected to drink as much as the guys.

By eleven, we were listening to a radio show talking about the ball about to be dropped. I just sat on the couch with an oversized lap dog on my lap and two very drunk Hazel and Chris dancing in front of me.

Finally they collapsed on the floor, I whispered to Garrison.

"They can't go home like this. Don't you know the rule, don't let your friends drive drunk." He looked at me, then sighed.

"All right. Well it looks like they are out of it. So lets go get some blankets and pull the bed out of the couch. I don't have any other place for them." After Garrison had pick up Hazel and place her on the bed, I was sitting over Chris trying to wake him up. I turned to Garrison and where he was tucking in Hazel.

"He is not waking up, at all. I think you're going to have to pick him up too." I smirked, but then felt a hand going up my leg. I turned quickly to see Chris running his hand lazily up starting at my calf and continuing.

"Oh no you don't." I grabbed his hand and placed it back on his chest. He laughed.

"But Raven, Raven, Raven, you're just so beautiful. Garrison is so lucky to have you in his bed. Come on, we won't tell him and you can come with me." His voice was sloppy and his hand movements were somewhat lazy. I turned to see Garrison giving him a scowl. I started to clean the living room the best I could.

I finished cleaning the living room, and some dishes that had been used. I was utterly exhausted.

I crawled into bed only to find Garrison already there and asleep, naturally when I laid next him his arm slipped around me. My head was buzzing with thoughts, _Did Chris really think we were having sex? Was my relationship with Garrison ever going to actually get that far? And if so, was I actually ready to take that step?_ When I finally drifted off, it was plagued by bad dreams and evil little creatures.

The next morning, I woke up alone. The bed felt suddenly very cold. I got up and dressed for the day. Taking my time to put on the makeup Hazel had given me. When I walked down stairs everyone was sitting in the living room talking in hushed voices.

They stopped the moment I entered. _Well wasn't that just obvious._ I sat down next to Garrison only to see him looking at the floor. My stomach made some noise, and I got up to make some breakfast.

While the stove was getting warm, I could hear them talking again. This time I hid behind the door to listen.


	11. Chapter 11

"Marshall isn't the kind of guy I would suggest you have look after her. I don't know what it is. But I do not trust the guy, especially around someone young and vulnerable like Raven." I could hear that in Hazel's voice held some distress.

"Marshall is the perfect guy."

"This is not the army, this is not a secret mission. You are talking about leaving a seventeen year old girl with a man twice as old as she is and he is just….I don't know. But whenever I was around him he made my skin crawl." Garrison interrupted.

"Marshall is the only choice I have."

"When are you going to tell her you're leaving her with a man she doesn't know?" Hazel shot back.

"I'm not leaving her. I will be away. But only for like a day and a half. I won't be gone long," I heard a sigh, "it's not like I actually want to leave, but I must go."

I came out of the kitchen with some eggs and toast. When I sat down, I looked into the faces of every person in the room. And all eyes pointed to me. I cleared my throat.

"So how are you two feeling?"

Hazel laughed, "Much better, thank you." I looked at Chris, but he just looked at the floor. Nobody spoke for a few moments. "I think we best be getting home." And they left without a word. I soon got up to clean my dishes.

When I was done, I turned around to see Garrison leaning against the doorway. I sighed and walked towards him. As I got closer, he stared down at me. In those eyes, I saw so many emotions. I wasn't sure what to think. I touched his arm, and felt him stiffen under my touch.

"What's wrong?" I whispered.

"Nothing." And then he turned and walked away from me and sat on the couch. I felt my stomach drop, _What did I do?_

I wasn't going to give up though. And I sat beside him. I turned so my body faced his. And my leg that I tucked under me was leaning against his.

"Please. Something is wrong. Can you at least tell me so I can try and help you."

"I told you, its nothing." His voice was cold.

"If it's nothing, then why are you acting like this to me?" His cold glare turned to me. I felt tears well up. My tears started flowing down my face.

"What did I do?" I whispered, afraid my voice was going to crack.

"It's not you."

"Then what is it then? If I can't make you happy, then what can I do? What did I do!" He shot up off the couch and started pacing. He ran his hand through his hair, and kept looking back at me.

"It's just that…it's not you. Don't ever think that it's your fault. It's mine," he continued while I just sat and watch him walk, "what Chris said last night was true. I am lucky to have someone like you. And I don't know what I would do if I lost you." He sat down and took my hands into his. "Please, don't leave me. I don't think I could survive if you did. Please." I numbly shook my head, silent tears falling down my face. He got off the couch and knelt down in front of me.

He wrapped his arms around my middle, and buried his face in my stomach. I tried to be as comforting as I possibly could. He continued to babble on.

"If you ever left, I'd search for you until every rock was unearthed. I would find you, I don't think I could ever live a day without you, and keep you by my side." I got him back on the couch, and we laid together in silence.

"What brought this on?" I asked him hesitantly.

"Past experiences." He said wearily.

"You mean you're last breakup?" I stiffened the second the sentence had escaped. He raised up quickly to look into my face. I looked down as the heat flood my cheeks.

"How do you know about that?"

"I…uh….never mind. Just forget it."

"No, tell me where you found out this information." I kept looking down trying to see his face.

"Please, I didn't mean to say anything. Just forget I said it." He grabbed my chin and made me look into his face.

"How do you know about Kristen?"

"I didn't know her name, and I didn't know what happened. I don't know anything."

"You're lying!" He growled the hand on my chin tightened.

"No I swear! I don't know anything. All I know is that it didn't work out well." By the time I had finished I was hysterical. "Please, you're hurting me."

He let go like I was something infected. He got up, and I sat on the couch crying into my hands. I felt the couch sink next to me, and his arms came around me trying to comfort me.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He kept saying softly into my hair. "I'm sorry. Who told you about Kristen and my relationship?" I looked up at him.

"You won't get mad at them?" He sighed,

"No I won't."

"Well it was…Hazel…she was telling me that it was O.K. for me to talk to you and not be scared. And then she let it slip, how you're last relationship didn't go too well. But she didn't say anything else I swear." I looked into his eyes trying to see if he had any anger in them.

"It was an innocent conversation."

"I know. I understand. But Hazel knows better than to talk about Kristen especially to you."

"What happened?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Please." He looked at me and sighed. "When Hazel and Chris first started dating they wanted to double date with me. And Hazel brought along Kristen and we just seemed to click. Months later, we had moved in with each other. And I came home to find that she had just skipped the whole break up part and was sleeping with my friend who happened to live next door.

The irony in all this is that day. I had gotten home early to surprise her with a wedding ring, and did I surprise her."

"What did you do? When you found them."

"Threw her out, literally, and her clothes followed right out the door with her."

"And your friend?"

"He definitely needed some medical attention after I was through. She went and slept with him that night. And I told myself I would never open up again. Well until I met you, of course." I looked at him, and thought about what I could exactly say to that.

"Sorry I was the one who broke your promise to yourself." He laughed at this.

"It is worth it, I think." I got up from my position by his side to look at his face.


	12. Chapter 12

"I'm sorry that you had to go through that." I kissed his forehead and then settled back, my back against his chest.

"What about you?"

"What about me? I don't have any stories like that?"

"What about your parents? Your dad?" I froze, I hadn't talked about Dad for a very long time. I looked up into his patient eyes.

"How'd you know about him?"

"I know quite a bit about you actually. I don't want to say that I stalked you, but I found out some things about you, and like I said. You intrigued me. And I just happened to read about your Dad leaving. And I wanted to know what happened." I sighed.

"I don't really want to talk about it." He rubbed my arm encouragingly.

"You will feel better once you do, I promise." I took a deep breath.

"It's a long story."

"I've got nothing but time."

************* *

"My dad got a new job at a law firm, and he met a couple people and began to have friends. My family invited some of them for dinner one night, and that's when she came. Imagine a tall, blonde, beautiful girl that just got out of beauty school.

Mina was her name, she ruined my life. My parents were somewhat well off I guess, we weren't hurting for money. And she took a liking to my dad. By the fourth month of my dad working at his new job, my little brother had caught them "wrestling" more than once. I, being the oldest, saw what it would do to my family through a thirteen year olds eyes, I decided not to tell my mother. I couldn't stand the thought of what it would do to my mom, so I told my little brother to forget what he saw. And to tell no one, it was our little secret.

Two months later, she had wormed her way into my family. How, I do not know. But she used to watch us since Mom worked nights. Dad, I later learned, would sneak through the back to my parent's room and when we went to bed, they would have their own fun.

I had had enough, and I couldn't keep the secret anymore. During breakfast, my mom had just gotten home, and I told her I had something important to tell her. When I got home, she sat me down and I busted in tears, and told her the whole story.

When I finally got my story out, Dad walked through the door. I don't think there was a quiet moment after that. I cried so much that night, and I've never forgiven myself. Because my brother and sister will never have that family, or the opportunity to have grown up with the family that I did.

The divorce was long, hard, and stressful. Mom had a hard time with keeping her job. So the judge made me and my siblings live with my dad and his new live-in girlfriend. We lived there for six weeks, and they were probably the worst six weeks of my life. Mina always yelled at me when Dad wasn't around. She made my life a living hell, because if I had kept my mouth shut then nobody would be suffering. But she was in it for the money.

On the sixth week, I told my mom I wanted to move back in with her. I had become like the parent to both my siblings because I wouldn't let Mina touch them. And Dad just didn't care. My mom went back to the court, demanding they listen to her side of the story. By the end, the same judge said to give us some time to settle down, and if we didn't like the arrangements we could move, if we wanted.

So on my fourteenth birthday, two months of living with them, Mom took us back down to the court. I stood in front of the judge, and informed him that neither my dad nor his girlfriend were compatible to take care of kids. And my mother would be much better for my young siblings. A week later, I had moved back with my mom and babysat my siblings so Mom didn't have to pay for daycare. She worked two jobs and we lived check by check. I began to baby sit other kids in the apartment complex after school to help Mom out.

By my fifteenth birthday, I was saving money for a car so I could get a real job. Our luck changed when my mom was promoted to manager making twice as much as she was before. We struck more luck when Mom ran into Elias, a guy she met at the grocery store. They had been high school sweethearts and married some months later. Elias was a doctor, so the money was pouring in.

We bought a house, and I got a car as a Christmas present. This all happened the year before my sixteenth birthday. So life has been going great now. I got a job as a store clerk. So I guess everything worked out for the best.

My family never heard from my dad and Mina again. I did receive an invitation to their wedding, and in the paper they announced the birth of Conner, my half brother. But I've never seen him, and I don't want to, to be honest.

So that's my story, all done."

************* *

"I didn't realize all that had happened to you. All in a short amount of time. What are your siblings names?"

"My little brother's name is Michael and he's seven years old. And my little sister's name is Jayda and she's nine years old."

"So young."

"They are young. Too young."

"I've always wanted kids."

"Me too."

I had fallen asleep with my head in Garrison's lap. And when I woke up, the house seemed dark, _must be night time. _When I began moving, Garrison looked down at me. My neck was stiff from laying in the same position for so long. I rolled over and curled into a little ball, I could hear him laughing.

"We need to go to bed." I shook my head no.

"I like it right here." His leg moved, and my head fell onto the cushion.. I whined then buried my head deeper into the cushions. Suddenly arms came around me, and I was hoisted in the air then trapped next to a chest.

"Put me down mister. I'm not going to bed!" I began poking him, my face was still buried in his chest.

"Oh, little Missy, but you are going to bed. With me, because I can't get a good nights sleep without you. And I will not let you sleep on a couch."

"Ugh, fine I guess. But it doesn't mean I like the idea. I'll let you pass this time, but this is the only time. So don't take it lightly."

"Right, I'll watch my step." By this time, we were all ready in the bedroom. He laid me down, and pulled the blankets up to my chin.

"I'm still in my normal clothes, I need to change."

"Would you like me to do that for you too?" My face flushed.

"I think I'm old enough to change my own clothes." I began to worm my way out of the bed, only to have a hand grab my leg and pull me back. I let out a squeak, and tried to claw my way to the end of the bed.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"To change? I can't sleep in jeans."

"Oh, I don't think you are." His mouth came upon my neck, making its way past my collar bone. I flushed and wiggled. He looked up, "Are you uncomfortable with this?" He did it again.

"I, uh, well just a little I guess."

"I'll go slow." He continued his decent but over my clothes. He stopped at my stomach, and nuzzled it with his nose. It took all the willpower in me not to make noise. Then I felt cold air touch my skin and the feeling of his face against my stomach was just crazy!! I blushed even more when he sat up with a satisfied grin on his face.

His hair was all in disarray, I didn't even realize that I had done that. He came back up kissing my neck, with his mouth. I kissed back instantly. He pulled back.

"You can go change now." I saw him get up and go towards the bathroom, stopping at his dresser to grab some pajamas. The door closed and I let out a shaky breath. I got up and went into the closer, and closed the door. I was torn; one side was screaming _What was I thinking._ The other side was saying that it was all part of the plan. And another said, _That it was just too good and to just do what my body wants._ But as much as I would want to follow my instincts, I couldn't because this wasn't the kind of man I could do this with. But this could be part of the plan, I just had to face that I needed to be ready when the time was right.

I opened the door, and went into the bathroom to brush my teeth. I crawled into bed, and laid my head down on his chest. _Can I do this?_ I asked myself, the only answer I could figure was _You have to._


	13. Chapter 13

The next morning, I awoke to a slight shaking.

"Raven, wake up. Sweetheart, you need to wake up." _Sweetheart?_ The name somewhat stuck in my brain although my thinking was muddled. I cracked my eye open to see his face and then I registered the smell of food. My eyes opened farther to look around. But I saw no food. He laughed.

"The food is downstairs. And you must wake up and get dressed to receive it." I groaned.

"I wasn't that mean to you and make you get up and dressed."

"I know, but you must get up for me though. I want to see your beautiful face when you are finally awake."

"O.K. fine. Give me a minute." I rolled out of bed, then as I walked by I made a face at him.

"Don't give me a scowl."

"Give me a reason to not scowl at the person who woke me up."

"Do you really want me to?" I thought for a moment.

"Yeah I do." He took one long stride and had me in his arms. My feet weren't touching the ground, and I was pressed against his chest again. I can honestly say, his frenching abilities were…shocking. I pulled back, somewhat out of breath.

"What's wrong?"

"I've got morning breath, that's not going to help my kissing out."

At this he let me back on the ground and began laughing. I just scowled and walked past him to the bathroom. While I was refreshing my breath, he stood behind me leaning against the doorframe. After I was finished, I turned to him and tried to walk past him.

I had just gotten right next to him, and when he realized I wasn't going to stop he brought up his arm to stop me from exiting the bathroom. I looked up at him.

"Can I please pass, my breakfast is waiting for me."

"Breakfast can wait. You are not getting out until you kiss me."

I laughed in his face. "No, I will not. I tried being nice and clean my mouth but you just laughed at me. So you're not getting anything now."

"Is that a challenge?" I narrowed my eyes.

"As a matter of fact, Mr. Riley, it is." I was about to duck under his arm that was barricading me in, but his arms encircled my waist, and some how turned me so my back was against his chest. His breath was hot against my neck. Chill bumps raised on my skin.

"Well Ms. Alexander, you are a challenge I am willing to take up." My mouth went dry. He kissed me under my ear.

"I need to get dressed still." He nodded his head, and let me go. I walked to my closet, and quickly got dressed. When I walked back into the room I saw him standing there. We walked down and had the usual breakfast.

By late afternoon, nothing had really happened until Garrison suddenly turned to me.

"We need to talk." I looked at him oddly.

"…O.K. what do we need to talk about?"

"Well, in about a week and a half's time, I must go out of town. Not for long, but I must go. But I don't want to leave you alone, because I don't want you to get hurt and you can't get any help. But the problem really is, Chris and Hazel will be out of town, so Chris has talked to an old friend of ours and he will be coming over the night before I leave."

"I'll be alone with someone I don't know?"

"I know what you're thinking, but I think he'll be O.K. Hazel expressed her concerns so that is why he is coming over the night before I leave so that if you do not like him I can cancel my trip and try to go some other time."

"I guess my next question is, who is this guy?"

"His name is Neil Marshall, also met him in basic. Good man."

"O.K. I guess we'll deal with it when the problem comes around."

"Sounds like a good plan."

"I need to feed Eggo." I got up and fed my dog. I went to bed early that night. Around one I was awoken with the feeling of the bed moving around. I looked up to see Garrison just crawling into bed.

"What are you doing coming to bed so late?" I said tiredly.

"I needed to do some stuff, it's nothing."

"You must be tired." I yawned.

"Yes, I am."

"O.K. well good night then." I laid against him and fell asleep. A couple hours later, I was once again woken up to the movement coming from underneath me. I sat up to see what was going on. Garrison's face was contorted and he was moving around. I heard the sound of teeth grinding against each other. I began shaking him.

"Hey, wake up." I kept repeating, my shaking became harder. Finally he shot up off the bed, and grabbed my shoulders. His face was damp and he was breathing hard. "Are you O.K.?" He looked around then back at me.

"Yeah, bad dream." He sounded out breath.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He looked around.

"I just need to walk around, I'll be alright. Go back to sleep." I laid down and instantly went back to sleep. When I awoke, he still wasn't in bed. I got up and walked around looking for him. I found him in the locked room.

"What are you doing?" He turned around quickly.

"When I get back from my business trip, we're leaving."

"Leaving? What do you mean? Where will we go?"

"Mexico, or if you want to go to South America. But I'm tired of being here." I looked somewhat hesitant about coming into the room. He sighed heavily, and leaned back in his chair. He turned so we were facing each other from across the room. He opened his arms, and I slinked inside and onto his lap. He began playing with my neck with his lips, and turned my face so he could reach my lips. I pulled back.

"Please, I need this." _Anything to make him feel better, right? _I gave in, and the next thing my brain could comprehend was that I was being carried out of the room and I could feel the couch under me. He pulled away so we could breathe and catch our breath. I pulled him back down and hugged him to me. _Was I ready to take the next step?_ I had to be. Because I wasn't sure what brought on this change, but I needed to make sure I could stay alive to see my family again. _Isn't that what kidnappers do when they get tired of the kidnapped._ I moved my hands up and down his chest. My face was already flushed, but this did not help.

I could feel his breath hitch in his throat. Things continued, I didn't know one could feel this way. I tried to keep as quiet as possible, but some things cannot be helped. I was human, after all. It was the first time I had ever gotten close to having sex. My body reacted instantly, and that scared the hell out of me. But what was a girl to do?

We camped out on the couch the rest of the day and around ten, Eggo came and laid down at the bottom of the couch. I finally had to get something to eat when I thought my stomach was going to eat itself. While I was making my sandwich, arms came up behind me and a pair of lips toyed with my skin.

"Why do you always come up behind me when I'm trying to make food."

"To keep you on your toes." He mumbled softly into my hair. I turned around with my sandwich in hand. I took a bite and began chewing. He eyed the sandwich my hand, I held it up for him. He dipped his head in and took almost half my food. My mouth fell open and I stared at his mouth.

"You…you took half my food!" He laughed but it became jumbled behind the large mound of food in his mouth. "Give it back! Or make me another one," he finally swallowed the large amount of food in his mouth.

"No," he simply said. My eyes got wide and I frowned.

"It's on!" He backed away as I came forward. "Come back here!" I yelled as I chased him around the house. He laughed as he ran up the stairs and into the bathroom. I began banging on the door. "You can't hide in there forever."

I stood there but he wasn't going to come out. Maybe threatening isn't the way to go I decided to use nature's gift.

"Please, I don't want you staying in there and leave me by myself. I'll feel lonely." I tried to make my voice sound as pathetic as possible. The door burst open and I was swooped off my feet and carried into the bedroom. The bed appeared under me and Garrison stayed above me keeping his weight off of me.

I looked into his face, then leaned forward to start kissing him down his neck. My arms became constricted above my head as he pinned them down and made his way down my body. I had a feeling that if we continued, there was not turning back. I made a noise in the back of my throat. He pulled back and looked into my face.

"I…I uh…" I could only get out.

"I understand." He rolled off of me, and laid on his back trying to control his breathing. I moved so I was laying on his chest, and propped myself up to look into his face.

"I'm sorry. I guess I'm not ready yet. But I don't think it's forever, just not right now." He looked at my face and brushed his hand across my cheek.

"Will you tell me when you are?" I grinned and leaned down to kiss him.

"You'll be the first to know."


	14. Chapter 14

The day after marked the one week count down of Garrison leaving for his business trip. Hazel had conveniently dropped by, showing me all the new bathing suits she had purchased. Garrison came in during our girl time.

"I need to purchase some things for my trip, Raven. I will be back in a bit. Can you stay here Hazel?"

"Yeah, I'll be here." He came over and leaned over me, kissing me deeply, then he turned without a word after the door closed. Hazel cleared her throat.

"So, I see you two have become rather close." I rolled my eyes.

"And what if we have?"

"Well, how is he? I can give you few pointers and tips." My mouth fell open and my cheeks flushed with color.

"We haven't slept with each other." I mumbled.

"Oh, really? Well you sure fooled me. The way you two seem to be with each other, I would have guessed you two have been for a while. Why haven't you?"

"I'm just not ready. I don't know," I let my anguish out, "he kidnapped me, he's the man that took me away from my family. I don't think I can. I'm not ready?"

"Honey, it's O.K. to be nervous your first time. But it's going to happen eventually. It's just natural. Think about it, you stick a male and a female who are attractive in a house together, they will eventually have sex. That is how nature works."

"But I don't want it to. It's hard to explain. Right now I'm totally against it. But when we're with each other, there's one part that still doesn't want to, and another saying do it. I'm torn."

"Well I heard about him wanting to move to Mexico."

"Do you think it's another protective barrier?"

"I don't know. Garrison has never stayed in one place more than two years. I'm surprised he's stayed this long. He owns quite a bit of houses."

"Does he have one in Mexico?"

"I don't remember, but if he doesn't, he can acquire one rather easily."

"Oh."

"You're not the only one torn."

"What do you mean?"

"He is torn to. The look on his face is painful, like a war is raging. One is saying to wait. And the other probably is saying I can't. That can be damaging to a man." I laughed a little.

"Do you think I can do it?" She patted my leg.

"It'll be worth it. I promise." She said she needed to get home, she had a plan. Garrison walked through the door, Hazel stood, said her good byes, and left.

"Hey." I stood and walked over to him eyeing the bags of goodies.

"I had to get a couple of items for my trip." I tried to peek in. "And is there something you need?" I quickly looked at him, trying to feign innocence. He laughed. "Come here." He said softly. He put the bags down and opened his arms. I walked into them, kissing him along the way. When we parted, he grabbed the bags. "I do actually have some things for you. How could I not get anything for my love." My face flushed greatly at that.

"So what did I get," He dug around and pulled out a cell phone. Small and simple. My heart skipped a beat at the sight of it.

"This little thing is very special. You see, it's like an advanced walky-talky. Because I have one just like it. Yours can only call mine and vice versa. It only picks up one frequency. I wanted to make sure that if you had any problems, you could reach me. Now please, I beg you, only call me if it is an emergency. Because I'm going to try to finish up as quickly as possible, all right?" I shook my head yes. I grabbed the phone and put it in my pocket. "I want that on you at all times, understand?" I nodded again.

The rest of the week continued without much event. Until the night Hazel appeared with a bag in her hand adamantly telling Garrison that only I could open it. I was eating dinner when he appeared again carrying a bag. He set it on the table in front of me. I stood and peered in it cautiously only seeing mounds of lace.

I sat down putting the bag in my lap, and pulled something out of the bag. A pair of lacy underwear set from Victoria Secret was all I needed to see for I threw it back in the bag, my face hot. Garrison hadn't been paying attention to me, until he heard the commotion from the other end of the table.

"Is there something wrong," he asked.

"No," I said quickly, "not at all."

"What's in the bag?"

"Nothing." I took a breath, "It's nothing you need to worry about." There was something in my face that stopped him from further questioning. After dinner, I went into the bedroom, shutting the door. I dumped the contents of the bag on the bed, and sighed in disgust and embarrassment. I riffled through the lacy undergarments, six pairs, I counted. A note was at the bottom of the bag.

_Raven,_

_I know what you're probably thinking, but trust me, I did you a favor. I just thought you would need something to wear when you're ready. You don't have to thank me._

_Love,_

_Hazel_

I screamed inside my head. A knock came through, and my eyes widened when I realized that if he walked in right now, I'd die of embarrassment. I began throwing the clothes and note in the bag as the knocking became louder.

"One second!" I nearly screamed.

"Raven, are you O.K., what's going on?" His voice came in. I ran to my closet, and threw the bag under my shoes. I closed the door quickly, and ran to the other side of the room. I opened the door to see Garrison leaning against the frame. "What's wrong?" I tried to catch my breath and slow down my breathing.

"It's nothing. I was just looking at something. Come on, I want some dessert." I walked past a confused Garrison and for the rest of the night, thankfully, he didn't ask about it.


	15. Chapter 15

The next night, Neil Marshall arrived around four. I was peeling some potatoes when Garrison came in telling me to come say hello. When I walked into the living room, there stood a man about Garrison's height with black hair that was rather long and dark skin. He had a body style like Garrison also, broad shoulders, large chest, arms, and legs. But his eyes were the ones that made my spine tingle with anxiety. His eyes made me feel as if he was undressing me right there. I fidgeted uncomfortably, and sunk into Garrison's side trying to stay invisible. He walked up to me, his hand coming forward.

"Hello Raven." His voice was deep and almost cold. I acted obediently, sticking my hand also. When I put my hand in his, I could feel his thumb rubbing the back of my hand.

"How do you do?" I squeaked out. He finally released me from his grip, and I sunk back into Garrison.

Dinner wasn't any better. Neil, who I was told to call Marshall, starred at me the whole time. I tried to ignore the fact that during the whole dinner conversation he never made eye contact with Garrison for he kept his eyes on me.

I left the room, feigning a head ache, as fast as humanly possible. By midnight, I had fallen asleep with the resolve that I was not comfortable with the Marshall guy. A few hours later, I awoke to find that Garrison was not in bed. I got up to get him to bed but instead found the locked room open. I tip-toed to the door hearing their voices.

"Well, she certainly is beautiful. Chris wasn't exaggerating when he said that. I can assure you, I can take care of her." My skin crawled at his small speech.

"I'm not worried about your babysitting or care taking abilities, Neil," Garrison cut in, "I'm more concerned about her being comfortable with being here alone with a man she doesn't know well.

"She seems to have faired well with you." Marshall shot back.

"We've lived together for nearly nine and a half months. I surely hope she is comfortable with me. I'll ask her in the morning what she wants to do."

"So, what exactly is this trip you're taking?" I could hear some movement and a big sigh.

"I have some business men who are not spending the money I have invested in too well. So I must have some meetings to get everything back on track."

"Interesting, you really have become quite the money man."

"What I always wanted to do. I'm saving up for the future."

"Kids?"

"Well, it's not out of the question." My stomach clinched at the thought, and the image of lacy things in my closet that I hadn't touched, ran through my head.

"What about the girl?"

"What about Raven? Who's to say she won't be my kids' mother?" I almost got sick right there. This was not what I needed to hear.

"Well, do you think she would be willing to do that?"

"I honestly don't know. But I'm not going to force myself upon her. She will need to tell me when she's ready." I sighed a relief.

"Back to important things. Is this trip important?"

"Well, I would never tell Raven this, but yeah it is. I need to get in there and get out. I want to get out of town and take Raven with me."

"Why are you leaving?"

"I need a change of scenery, and I'm tired of Raven staying inside all day."

"What time are you leaving?"

"Early noon, then I'll get there later tonight. Tomorrow morning I have meetings all day until two. Then I'll head back and get here by late tomorrow night."

"So I'll be here today and tomorrow." The nauseated feeling appeared again.

"That's the plan. I need to get to bed." I backed away tip-toeing to the stairs then running up and into the bedroom, throwing the sheets over me.

A few moments later, Garrison walked in. I cracked my eye open slightly to see him taking off his shirt. Only his back was exposed to me, from the light from the bathroom he had just turned on. I shivered slightly as he moved, the muscles in his back rippling under his skin. He turned and looked at me, and I saw his chest. Wrong or not, but he was well built, he grabbed some pants and went into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. I rolled over so my back was facing the bathroom door, the bed sunk next to me as Garrison laid beside me pulling me to him.

I woke up around seven, and rolled over to see Garrison still asleep. Leaned on my elbows over his face, kissing him lightly. I scooted closer bringing my arms up to his chest so I didn't have to strain my neck so much. His mouth started moving this time. I pulled back, running the tip of my nose down his throat and back up. When I reached his face, I could see him smiling.

"Good morning." I said happily.

"Hey." He said groggily.

"You need to get up and start packing if you're going to leave today." He grabbed me and pulled me down so my head was just under his chin and our bodies were intertwined.

"I don't want to get up. I want to lay here, with you, all day." He whined. I giggled at his childish outburst.

"Sorry honey, but you can't, first off we have a guest. And second you need to go and get your business over with." He rolled us over so he was on top of me.

"I think I need some motivation. Would you please be so kind as to give me some?" I smiled brightly.

"Gladly." I leaned up and connected our lips. Five minutes later, I finally needed air. "Is that enough motivation?" I said somewhat out of breath.

"I guess." He rolled out of bed to get dressed. I helped him pack and get ready to go. By early afternoon, like he said, he was ready to leave. I stood by the front door with Marshall to my right.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow night." Garrison said, shaking Marshall's hand.

"You be safe now." Marshall said gruffly. Garrison turned to me and bent down to pick me up so we were face to face.

"I'll see you soon. I'll be back as soon as possible." He said softly.

"I'll be here waiting." I said, trying to sound chirpy. I kissed him deeply wrapping my arms around his neck. There was a sound of someone clearing their throat that made me pull away. I blushed lightly. He set me back on my feet. "Be careful, and call me when you get there." He smiled happily.

"I promise I will." I looked sternly at him.

"No matter how late it is." He laughed.

"O.K. I will I promise. And you keep that talky on you at all times just in case I get lonely and need to talk to someone."

"I will." He picked up his dropped luggage and slung it over his shoulder.

"Bye." He said, and closed the door. I sighed heavily, and went and sat on the couch. Marshall followed suit but sat on the other end. I grabbed a book and began reading. By early evening, I got up to make dinner. I set the table, and we ate without any comments.

"I'm going to head onto bed." I said breaking the silence that had filled the house. Eggo appeared next to me, "Good night."

"Good night, Raven," Marshall called after me.


	16. Chapter 16

An hour later, the talky started beeping. I sat up and flipped it open.

"Hello." I said pressing the little button like Garrison had shown me.

"Hey Honey." I smiled. I felt relief, but that turned to guilt. _Was I supposed to feel that way?_

"How was your ride?"

"Long, there wasn't much entertainment." I laughed.

"Well you could have talked to me. My day was long too."

"What did you do?"

"Just read."

"Well, I guess I should have. What is Marshall doing now?"

"I'm not sure. I went to bed about an hour ago, but I can't fall asleep. But before I went, he had just grabbed a beer."

"O.K. I guess he's making himself at home. Just be careful he doesn't have a high tolerance for alcohol." My stomach dropped, I swallowed.

"I will. So you have to get up early tomorrow?"

"Yeah. And then I'm going to get out as soon as I can." I smiled.

"O.K. well you need to get to bed. I'll see you tomorrow." I heard him grumble.

"I can't go to sleep. The bed is lumpy, and I don't have a lovely girl beside me. I'm not going to get any sleep." I laughed.

"Oh you poor thing. I think you will survive. Just get some sleep, and imagine what tomorrow night will be like." I said jokingly. My blush rising as I thought about what I just said, and the image of what was in the bag.

"Don't tease me. We're going to go to bed early tomorrow night."

"You don't have to tell me twice."

"Good night Raven, sweet dreams."

"Night Garrison. I'll see you tomorrow." I didn't get very much sleep. By three o'clock the next morning I fell into a dreamless sleep, only to be awoken to pounding on the door.

"Raven!" Marshall's voice slurred. I walked over to the door, opening it far enough to only stick my head out.

"What's wrong?"

"I needed to see you. You are just so pretty." His breath rank of alcohol.

"Are you drunk?" I said exasperated.

"No darling." He said leaning against the door. I couldn't keep it closed with his weight. And the door pushed me away from the opening. Marshall stumbled in, almost falling right there.

"Come here." I took him under his arms and push him on the bed. "Stay right there." He mumbled something and began trying to get up once again. "Stop." I tried pushing him back down, only to have his arms come around my waist. He hauled me to the bed, next to him. I screamed, and began hitting him. "Get off of me! Get off." He crawled on top. I could have gotten drunk just from his breath. I looked at the walky-talky on the nightstand and tried to reach for it. My hand stretched out, but my fingers pushed onto the floor.

By now, his hands were everywhere they shouldn't have been. I kneed him in the groin. He stopped moaning in pain. I rolled him off of me, and crawled to the floor.

"Come here!" I grabbed the walky-talky and slid under the bed. He couldn't reach me for the bed was too close to the ground for him to crawl under. I pressed the panic on the talky, which per Garrison, would send him a message saying I was in trouble. By now Marshall was cursing loudly. Tears started pouring down my face, when Garrison's urgent voice came through.

"Raven? What's wrong?!?" His voice sounded like a god sent.

"Help me! Marshall, he's drunk. And I'm hiding under the bed." In the background, Garrison could hear Marshall's angered voice.

"Hold on, I'm on my way." More tears came down my face. The bed then flew from on top of me. I whimpered, trying to move away. A hand grabbed my long hair pulling my hair, dragging me back. I screamed in pain, some hairs being pulled out by the roots.

I flew backwards, landing on my back, my head hitting the floor hard. His body was on top of me in a split second. Pinning me down with his body. This was not what I wanted when it goes to being my first time. I tried fighting to no avail, praying for Garrison to come through the door.

"Get off of me!" I screamed, my voice going hoarse. His hand came over my mouth, and I sunk my teeth in his hand. He pulled back, a bite mark left on his hand. He cursed some more and brought back his hand, hitting me. Blood instantly filled my mouth. I looked back up at him with hate filled eyes.

"Now shut up." He said deadly. He pinned my arms above my head with one of his hand, and tore my shirt off of me. My eyes widened as he took me in.

"Let me go!" the door busted open, and there stood Garrison, eyes like fire.

He walked in grabbing Marshall and throwing him to the other side of the room. He came to me, taking me in his arms. I sobbed in his chest, holding him tightly. I heard some movement, and saw Marshall getting up.

"Garrison!" I said pulling back to point at the danger behind him. He turned around punched Marshall square in the nose. I heard a crunch and saw Marshall sink to the floor, unconscious, with a pool of blood on the floor. Garrison came back to me, pulling me into his lap. He began smoothing my hair back.

"I was so scared." I whispered, shakily.

"I was too. I rushed here. I couldn't even imagine what he would have done to you." I shivered, then pulled back.

"How did you get here so fast?"

"I left early. The people I needed to meet with were inconveniently out of work. So I wanted to get back here as fast as possible. I was only about twenty minutes from the house when you called me. So I sped up to get here as fast as I could." He looked at my face, then placed his hand against the part of my lip that was busted. I sniffled, and looked down. After everything I had just been through, my face still flushed at my opened shirt. He followed my gaze down, I looked back up trying to close my shredded shirt..

"Here," he said as he shrugged off his jacket, placing it around my shoulders. I smiled lightly.

"Thanks." I peered over at the still Marshall, and turned around quickly.

"Come on, I think it's time we head out." I cocked my head to the side, "We'll head out today, go to the bathroom and clean up. I'll pack your things." I shook my head, and got up. I stood there as Garrison also got up and assessing the damage of the room. As I began to walk away, his hand caught my arm. He leaned down, brushing his lip against mine. I pulled him closer, but my bruised lip stopped me from going farther.

I washed my face, and looked at my lip. Only a little bruise on the inside, not that noticeable. Garrison knocked on the door, I opened it to see him holding some clothes in his hand.

I smiled, "What's this?" he stopped, placing the clothes on the counter, and pulled out a bag from behind him. I rolled my eyes.

"I brought you some clothes. And I was wondering if you could pack our bathroom items." I nodded. "Don't worry about the towels or anything of that nature. We'll have some at our new home." I nodded again.

"I'll be done in a second, then I'll come help you." He closed the door behind him. I changed clothes, and threw all the items I needed in the bag. I walked back to the bedroom to see Garrison just starting on my space. "I can do this," I interrupted. Just imagining what he would say if he saw the bag. While I walked towards my closet, I noticed Marshall's body was no where to be found.

"The truck's all ready to go. Are you ready?" I shoved the last pair of shoes in the bag.

"Yeah. Here carry this one. Is Eggo all packed up to go?" He stood there for a moment.

"Raven…I don't think he can come with us. It's rather hot in Mexico." He peered at me. My stomach somewhat dropped when it dawned on me what he really meant.

"Oh," I stood there for a moment, "then where is he going to stay? We can't just let him go, and he's not staying here alone." I said, my heart starting to pound.

"No, no we're going to let Hazel and Chris take care of him."

"They're on vacation though."

"Yes, but their neighbor would be O.K. taking care of him while they are gone." I nodded my head slowly.

"Come on." He said as he picked up most of the bags. I followed behind, then looked at the room. I rushed back to the closet and threw the bag in the luggage I had on my shoulder. When I got on the main landing, I looked for more evidence of Marshall, but saw none. Garrison came over taking the bags that I had in my hand, carrying them out to the car.

"Where did you put Marshall," he looked back at me.

"Don't worry about him. I gave him enough food to last him until Chris comes back. We need to leave." I stood my ground.

"What is Chris going to do to him?"

"Don't worry. He's going to get what he deserved for touching you."

"Why aren't you answering my question?" I pushed again. His eyes darkened.

"Because," he came up to be grabbing me by the shoulders, shaking me lightly, "I don't want you to think of me a monster for wanting to kill him. I want to snap his neck. I don't want him to be even a 1,000 miles near you." I looked at him, my eyes big.

"I won't think of you that way. He did something terrible to me. And you're just trying to protect me." He smiled a bit, pulling me into a kiss. When he pulled away, he put his arm around me, leading me out of the place I'd stayed at for nearly nine and a half months.

Driving down the road, I looked out the window, watching where we were going. We pulled into a driveway, and Garrison got out of the car, taking Eggo out of the back. He rang the doorbell, and older lady answered the door. After a few words, Garrison got back in the car. He looked at me.

"Ready to hit the road?" I put on the shades Hazel had given me from one of her numerous shopping sprees.

"Lets go."


	17. Chapter 17

After driving for what seemed like hours. I sat back, thinking of my family. _What was I going to do now that I was getting out of the country? I couldn't just up and run. We were driving straight to Mexico. And I couldn't run away in Mexico. I didn't know anybody, or anything for that matter._

I must have fallen asleep on accident, for Garrirson was on my side of the car trying to pick me up without shaking me much. I moaned, my body stiff. He tucked me into bed, taking off my shoes. He kissed my forehead, and got in next to me.

The next morning, I woke up in a bed unfamiliar, but very comfortable. I studied the room, it had sky lights, which made the room brighter. There weren't any windows. The bed had a canopy over the top, keeping unwanted light off the occupant. There were three doors. I looked over at Garrison to see him in a deep sleep. I scooted over, making as little movements as possible. When I got out, I opened one door to find a large room that was to be the closet. I walked to the one next to that, a bathroom. I walked to the other side of the room to find a hallway. Ceiling windows lined it, bringing in more natural light.

I crept down the hall, there were no doors, only a stair case. I stepped softly down the stairs onto the landing. The floor was hardwood, and the living room, dining room, and kitchen were all open. With no walls, one door was open by the living room, I could see it was a weight room.

Like the windows at the other house, they were only located near the top by the ceiling. A big front door stood in front of me

"Well, I'm glad you got to explore the place. What do you think?" A voice said behind me. I shook my head.

"It's great." He came up to me. Grabbing me by the waist, giving me a deep kiss.

The rest of the day consisted of us basically moving everything into their designated spots. We were now sharing a closet. And I put the bag in my underwear/sock drawer. Afterwards, we sat in the living room, until I finally said I wanted to go to bed.

I crawled in, letting out a sigh. I was very tired. Garrison laid next to me. I rolled over so we were facing each other. We laid in silence for a few moments. He couldn't keep his hands off of me. He kept rubbing my back, then leaned forward. A heated make-out proceeded.

I was swept away, not thinking about what I was doing, just letting my body go. I then was shaken out of my heaven when the night air hit my stomach and chest. He made his way down, pulling me back into bliss. I let myself go that night. Putting down the protective shield I had been wearing since my kidnapping.

I awoke with a bare form next to me. A hand was playing with my hair. I tried moving, but my body somewhat hurt. Last night's images flooded my mind, and I blushed brightly. I looked up in Garrison's face, to see him watching me with cheerful but weary eyes.

"Good morning." My face still red.

"Hi." My throat was rather dry. _I wonder why??_

"How are you feeling?" I saw the double meaning in the question.

"Tired and soar, but happy." I said merrily. _I just had sex with my captor, how was I supposed to feel?_ His face broke into a smile.

"Excellent." He rolled us over until he was on top, again. I found that if I gave way to the feelings he was evoking in me, it was easier to not feel guilty or disgusted.

We got in a routine, in the morning we would stay in bed until early afternoon. Then I would go take a shower while he made brunch. After we ate he would take a shower, then we would lounge on the couch, I would read while he would go workout.

We would go make dinner together, eat, then maybe watch a movie, I didn't watch much T.V. because it was all in Spanish. By ten or so, we would go to bed. But wouldn't fall asleep until around one or so. And the schedule would repeat itself.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It was now our official one year anniversary. And I had something special planned. I went to the bathroom with the bag in tow. I decided on green and blue lace. I remembered Garrison saying how good I looked in the two colors. I pulled the rob on, and walked out of the bathroom, swaying my hips a bit.

The morning after, I had the sudden urge to puke. I ran into the bathroom, emptying my stomach. He came in, pulling my hair out of the way, and rubbing my back soothingly. I didn't eat much the rest of the day, for I was afraid I might throw up again.

The next morning, was the same thing. But this time, I had my suspicions. By the third morning, I forced Garrison to go get me a pregnancy test. While he was gone, I paced back and forth almost in tears. _What the HELL was I thinking? What if I am pregnant? I didn't want to bring a child in the world, in this kind of environment. But I couldn't get rid of it._

I was about ready to jump out of my skin by the time Garrison got back. I ran to the bathroom and waited. When it started turning pink, I screamed. Garrison came in, and looked at it then smiled!

"This is excellent," he said picking me up, hugging me. I was still in shock. Nausea rolled over me again. _I was pregnant?_

Garrison was happy and in a better mood than I had ever seen him. The morning sickness finally stopped by the second month. We moved back to the old house by month three.

I began eating again. I craved mostly ice-cream. I decided, although pregnancy hadn't been in my plan of breaking free, there was nothing I could do now. So why not enjoy it? By the second trimester, my baby bump began to show. At night, Garrison would rub my stomach, I then made him rub lotion to make sure my stomach didn't get stretch marks.

"I have something important to tell you, Chris and Hazel have cleaned up our house. And Hazel went to the expense of making our house baby proof. Not only that, but you have a doctor's appointment with a guy I went to school with willing to do it free of charge." My eyebrows raised. He came and sat down next to me.

"How did you manage that?'

"Pulled a few strings. I have connections to many people."

"So, our baby is going to be born in America?"

"Yes it is. We need to think of some names."

"We do."

"I was thinking Nathaniel if it is a boy. And Camille if it's a girl."

"I was thinking more of Ethan and Candace."

"Well, we'll find out soon. We're leaving next week. I can't wait."

"Me either."

* * * * *

"I'll carry this." I said as I grabbed a bag of clothes.

"No, I'll carry it all. I don't want you to strain yourself."

"I'm not going to 'strain' myself. Give me a bag before I strangle you, look you can't even make it out the door. Hand over a bag." He set everything down.

"How am I supposed to get everything together if you keep yelling at me. I don't want you caring anything heavy."

"O.K., give me a lighter bag. That has socks or something. I want to help."

"Fine." He gave me a bag that had mine and his underwear in it.

"Thank you." I grabbed the bag, held my head high. And walked past him, putting the bag in the car.

We got to the house around one in the morning. I had fallen asleep, once again, when we got to the American border. Garrison carried me to bed. I began to smile a bit.

The next morning, we were awoken to the door bell ringing. I went to the bathroom, and pulled on a robe. Garrison had already answered the door in shorts. I brought a shirt down with me. There stood Chris and Hazel in the living room.


	18. Chapter 18

"Oh! Look at you! You are so gorgeous pregnant. You have the glow," Hazel screeched, running up to me. She hugged me, putting me in a death lock.

"Hey. Great to see you guys too."

"Hazel was dieing to come see you two." Chris said, chuckling.

"Well, mostly Raven. Look at her Chris, isn't she adorable." She was rubbing my belly, admiring me some more. They stayed for breakfast, and then Hazel said she wanted to go shopping for more clothes. I just smiled and let her continue. We finally had them leave after lunch, I was somewhat tired, after being woken up like that.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Finally, the day I have been waiting for. Garrison and I got in the truck to go the doctor's office. I had butterflies all in my stomach. I didn't each much that morning, for I felt as if I was going to be sick.

"Now, when we get there, I'll answer all the questions." I just shook my head, not turning to look at him. we turned into a parking lot. The building was plain white, a typical doctor's office. I got out of the car, and grabbed Garrison's hand. I was so nervous.

The lady behind the desk looked up when the door opened. She plastered a smile on. We walked up to the counter.

"Hi, this Is Raven Riley. She's here to see Dr. Johnson." Garrison said politely.

"Oh yes," She said looking down at her notes, "please, come with me." She got up from behind the desk, opening up a door for us. She pointed us to a room that was small and plain. "Dr. Johnson will be right in. Please make yourselves comfortable." I shook my head, and went to sit on the bed. The doctor came in. he walked over the Garrison, shaking his hand.

"Garrison, how are you doing?" He seemed nice enough.

"I'm good Leroy. How about you?"

"I'm great. Everything's grand." He turned to me. "You must be Raven." I shook his hand also.

"Yes sir."

"Please lie back. how far along do you think you are?"

"Well, I'm thinking approximately two months."

"Let's take a look at the baby." He pulled out the ultrasound machine. A few moments later, the image of what was inside my stomach appeared. I took a deep breath, my heart soaring. "Well, as you can see, they are seemingly healthy." I had tears in my eyes, threatening to spill over.

"They?" Garrison's voice repeated.

"Of course, as you can see here, when I move to this side, there is another baby. It explains why she is so large."

"Twins." I said again, smiling at the word.


	19. Chapter 19

It had been a total of seven months since I had first found out that I was pregnant. I was to go back to the doctor again today.

"Hello Ms. Riley, how are you feeling?" Dr. Johnson asked when he walked into the room.

"Quite well thank you."

"Well lets get started," he said pulling out the machine, taking a few minutes to begin scanning my body.

"Well Ms. Riley, you are going to have quite a hand full with two boys."

"Both boys?!? Oh god." I said exasperatedly. Garrison kissed me, and I felt such joy that I finally knew what my babies were. We walked out with a smile on our faces. The doctor had said to just stay off my feet, and if there were any complications to come back.

The minute we pulled up the house, a car pulled in behind us. Hazel jumped out, running over to me.

"So what did he say?"

"I'm having boys!" She jumped up and down, and then hugged me. Garrison had finally made his way over.

"Well aren't you excited?" Hazel said.

"Yeah, of course." I smiled.

"I have to go," Hazel said suddenly, "there is so much to do. What colors do you think? Blue and what?"

"Green?"

"Oh yes, perfect. Chris and I will go to all the baby stores and buy in two's, and get everything you need. See I've been saving up since we heard you were pregnant. We'll buy everything." I continued to smile.

"All right, I'm going to go inside and sit for a while."

Garrison came in shortly with a smile on his face. He sat next to me, and put his head against my stomach. I rubbed one side of my stomach trying to image what they would look like.

"What are we going to name them?"

"I don't know."

"I'll call Hazel, and tell her to buy a baby name book too then."

"O.K. I'm going to take a nap. Wake me if you need anything."

Three days later, a large hauling truck backed up to the house. Out stepped Hazel and Chris. Chris opened the door to the back of the truck. And inside was everything baby-like imaginable. I was not allowed to touch anything big.

By the end of it all two cribs, a rocking chair, a changing station, diaper pail, two mobiles, bottles, blankets, diapers, pacifiers, car seats, and too many clothes. I couldn't believe so much stuff could fit into one room.

I lounged around for the rest of the week. One thing about being pregnant is that you get _fat._ Every morning I would look at my stomach and sigh. My once flat stomach, was now the size of a watermelon.

"I wish I had a normal stomach, I'm tired of feeling like a balloon." Garrison came up behind me, placing his hands on my tummy.

"I think you look perfect." I scrunched my nose.

"No, I don't. And what about after I have the babies. I'll be kind of saggy. That's all Mom complained about after she had both Jayda and Michael.

"You'll still be beautiful." He said kissing the back of my neck. I huffed.

"I don't know. I guess I'll have to actually exercise."

"No, you're going to sit, relax, and take care of my babies." I rolled my eyes.

"Right."


	20. Chapter 20

Today is the day. I was told to go to the doctor's and be ready to push. Both boys were healthy and ready to go. Garrison and I had sat down, for a week coming up with names that we were for and against. And we had come to the determination that our first born was to be Braxten Gage and our second son would be Camden Blake.

I got up early, not being able to sleep. My back had been hurting, for my stomach was so big. Packing a bag for me and the babies, Garrison went to make breakfast.

By noon, we drove to the doctor's office. A room had been specially set up for us. It was equipped with everything the doctor's and my babies would need. The nurses had me lay down in my thin gown. I was giving anesthetics through my back. Garrison came in, holding my hand. Dr. Johnson came in, checking to see if I was dilated.

Soon after I began pushing Braxten's head made it's way out, and I finally pushed him through. He automatically began crying, and I had tears in my eyes. I then had the urge to push again. I buckled down and continued pushing. And another cry filled the room. Camden was placed on my stomach to be picked up by the nurses. Garrison kissed my forehead.

I fell asleep soon after, and a couple hours later I woke up to Garrison holding a baby. I smiled, and sat up a bit.

"Can I hold one?" I smiled some more. Garrison got up handing me my baby.

"Say hello to Braxten. Camden is laying right here." He went to another crib, cradling him.

"Oh my babies are so beautiful." They both had a head full of dark hair, that were now curly since they had been cleaned. A knock on the door interrupted our family time. Chris and Hazel walked in carrying a balloon saying 'It's a Boy!' I smiled and nodded at them.

"Come on in you guys. Say hello to the new family members."

"They are adorable." Hazel said coming over to look at Braxten and Camden.

We stayed there over night so Dr. Johnson and the nurses could monitor the babies. The next day, we left and got home. I was exhausted but very happy to finally have everyone safe and sound.

Breast feeding them both every three to four hours was daunting. And while one was feeding, another was being changed. Garrison and I became totally dependent upon one another. We had to find a routine that would work best for us and the twins.

Around six or so, Braxten would begin to wake up. I would get up, take him to the nursery and feed him. Afterwards, Garrison would bring in Camden, and take Braxten to be changed. After the feeding and diaper change was complete we would eat. While the twins settled down a bit, I would go and work out a bit. Nothing bad, just enough to make me sweat a little and get the heart pumping.

I'd take a shower, and by then it was feeding and diaper changing time again. After, Garrison would go take a shower while I played with the twins. I then would start on lunch, and Hazel would stop by to see the babies and talk a bit.

Around two, once again another feeding and diaper change. They would then go to sleep for a while, giving us also time to rest. Dinner, bathes, and another feeding and diaper change would be issued once again after their naps. And then they would settle down for the night.

_I've never been happier here, with my baby boys. They were my rays of sunshine, and I wished the best for them. But there was one thing standing in the way. Although Garrison was being a good parent, I couldn't shake the idea that it wouldn't last long. For if I asked, when the boys were older, if they could go outside and see the sunshine. _

What was I to do?


	21. Chapter 21

By the time they were big enough to hold their heads up, I knew something had to be done. He was beginning to become protective again, not wanting even Hazel to stay long. Saying we needed more family time, and she wasn't needed. I was done, my babies needed something better than this. And if I couldn't do it, then I would have to reach out of my small circle and find someone who would. It wasn't for me anymore, it was for Braxten and Camden_._

Hazel and Chris came over to celebrate Easter. By now, the boys were able to hold their heads up. So they were sitting in highchairs while Hazel and I fed them in the dining room.

"Hazel, I need you help." I said casually keeping my voice low and my face clear of emotion. Chris and Garrison were in the living room watching a soccer game.

"What is it," she was following my example.

"I know that, if I asked you in any another situation, you wouldn't but, this is different. It has to do with my kids Hazel. They need a better life than this, and as a mother, I can't do this anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"I need to take the boys and run. But you know, as well as I do, that I wouldn't make it five miles. That's why I need your help."

"Are you asking me to help you run away from Garrison, and take the twins with you?"

"Exactly. Yes, I am," I sighed and turned to her, "it was different when it was just me. But now, the tables have turned. I have two lives that I'm responsible for. And there is no way I can do it alone."

"Raven, how can you ask this of me?"

"I understand if you can't. I just wanted to ask you for the sake of the babies. They shouldn't live like this." I turned back to feeding Camden.

"What do you mean 'Live like this?'" She frowned.

"They should be able to go out, and when they get older what are they going to do? Have a play pen in the basement? Please Hazel."

"What about Garrison?"

"He's the only one everyone is worried about. What about me? What about my children? It's not fair." She sighed. A few moments of silence passed.

"O.K. I'm willing to help you out. Just give me sometime to get Chris in on this please. I don't know how long it's going to take. But I'll try my hardest." I smiled gratefully.

"Thank you, Hazel."

A month passed before I got word from Hazel that she was willing. A note was slipped when she came by, giving me a new purse she found. It was large, and could a large number of items. While I was looking through it, I saw a piece of paper at the bottom. It simply read: _We have a plan_. But it gave me hope none the less.

Chris came over one day for a surprise visit. He said that his work closed early, and Hazel was out. I was in the kitchen making lunch for everyone, when Chris came in grabbing a beer. He walked casually over to where I stood looking at the food I was preparing. He then innocently slipped a piece of paper in my pocket. After I lunch, I went to the bathroom to read it, my hands shaking.

_Raven,_

_We are willing to help with what you have said. But you are going to need to do some of it yourself. We will set everything up, it is your job to get the ball rolling. Find a way to go to the grocery store on 5th Street. The bathroom has a door leading outside. There will be an alley with an abandoned car. The key will be in the ignition, get the boys and bail out of there. There will be further instruction in the cup holder, don't read it until you are at least twenty miles away from the store. Good luck._

_H & C_

Now it was my turn to put the plan in action. A week later, I finally saw the perfect opportunity. Garrison needed to go out to buy some diapers and food. But I came up with the brilliant plan that we should go out as a family. It was cold outside, and I put extra clothes on the boys. In my bag, I put one change of clothes, and money that I had found while doing laundry. In the diaper bag, I put as many diapers as I could, another change of clothes for each boy, and some formula.

Walking through the store, I said that the boys needed to be changed. There was an emergency exit next to the bathroom door.

I went out, and saw what I needed. I walked swiftly to the abandoned car, and opened the door. I set the boys in the passengers seat next to me. And turned the key in the ignition. I peeled out of the alley, and made my way through what little I knew of the city to the interstate. At the first rest area I stopped, and put the boys in their appropriate seats in the back. I then sat down, and read the second note.

_Raven, _

_I see you've made it out. Hopefully you drove far enough to read this safely. There is a map, driver's license, money, and phone in the glove box. The map shows the area of Houston, it will take you about two hours to get there. Once there, you should be able to navigate your way around. You'll find your Mom, for she moved there shortly after you were taken, if you have any problems feel free to call us. The number is saved in the contacts lists. The driver's license is for you, we had it specially made so you would be covered if anything happened._

_Be careful, and take good care of Braxten and Camden for us. We love you. The sooner you get to your Mom's and call the police, the less time Garrison will have to find you. He's smart, and it won't take him long to find his way to your Mother's house. So hurry._

_Love,_

_Hazel and Chris_

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"That's quite a story." Raven sat back, and looked over at where Braxten and Camden sat off set.

"It's my story. I did find my way to my Mom's house. It was almost midnight. And when I rang the door bell, Mom answered the door. I just cried, and held her close. We called the police, and I told them exactly what I told you here."

"And we know the rest of the story. Mr. Riley went into hiding, and Mr. Taylor and Ms. Stephanie were arrested. It took five months and a public speech from you for him to come out. Were you worried that he would find you?"

"I was scared to death. The boys slept in my room until the day he was found."

"Why did you go to his court trials? I think the majority of the public has asked the same question."

"Mr. Smith, whether I like it or not, I lived with that man for more than two years of my life. And he is the father of my two bright, happy boys. I wanted to prove that I had succeeded in my goal."

"What about Ms. Stephanie and Mr. Taylor, and their verdict?"

"I think they should have gotten less than the twenty years. They were nothing but kind to me. And in the end it was they who got me out of the prison my children and I were living."

"Are you worried Mr. Riley will break out like he promised."

"I think I will always go through life worried about something. Garrison left a mark on my life forever."

"Well Ms. Alexander, I thank you for this impressive interview."

"I thank you."

Raven gathered her purse and children, who were now eighteen months. While she pushed the stroller out of the office building, she looked down at her two happy twins boys. She went to the park, and pushed them on the swings. They both had curly brown hair. And vivid green eyes, that sometimes would bring Raven crashing into old memories, glowed brightly in happiness at the moment.

She would always worry about Garrison coming back, he was an unstoppable force, and would go through anything to have anything he wanted.

But for now she didn't have to worry, just spend as much time with her two bundles of joy and a family that she was forever grateful for having.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What happened to Garrison Riley, Raven Alexander, and their two boys Braxten and Camden Alexander? Only the future knows what secrets lie ahead.


End file.
